In the Eyes of Another
by GetReadyForAwesome
Summary: I get there and I meet some big names "Keep in mind that her name is longer than her deeds." Silver roars at us I could see a couple of tears slide down his face before he wiped them away. No lemons, no limes, guaranteed
1. The Call

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **This story will be in Monkey Khan's Point of View, the whole time**

 _ **Rated M for violence, mild cussing (cursing), drama, and because the authoress wants to feel freedom to put in whatever without having it taken down for censories. But I do have a policy: No lemons, no limes guaranteed.**_

 **In The Eyes Of Another**

 **Chapter 1: The Call**

"It will be sunny for the next four days with a 20% chance to rain this Friday." I predict. I show them the radar for the next two days, including the humidity, temperatures, and pollen factor for the next few days. There goes my allergies, but I could always go for a dip in the sea and clear it up for a little while. We enter into a commercial break and I step off of the green screen mat.

As I walk off, I am greeted by one of the producers who says, "Your wife has called. Will you call her back?" "Yes." I respond, and then he leads me into the boss's office, and I call her.

By the way, before you wonder who this mystery woman is that I am dialing up, it is River Byers the Lynx, my wife and Lightning the Lynx's little sister. Lightning dials in every now and then to make sure I am taking care of her, and he knows damn well that I will, but that doesn't deter him from bothering me about it.

Story behind that is that she is my omiai, or my arranged marriage partner in Japan. Lightning is so peculiar about me because Sally, one of my love interests when I was younger, decided to not take my offer to marry her when we were younger, which is understandable, people in America marry much older than we do, but I had a deadline to meet, so when that deadline happened, Sally decided that she wanted to marry me.

I didn't want her anymore. She told me the night of my 21st birthday that we would elope, and then Sonic came in and she shoved me in her closet and hid me behind her wardrobe, and I watched as Sonic bent down on one knee, asked her to marry him, her squeal "Yes" to an earpopping decible, and proceeded to make love to him. I'm still bitter over that.

But that bitterness won me back Lightning's favor when I arrived back to Japan in the next few days, who had told me, "Now you know how I felt when you told Sonic all of my weaknesses and proceeded to have him make a mockery of me in front of my Clan." I wondered if he had set the whole thing up, but a glint in his eyes told me that he knew what would happen between me and Sally, and that he knew that I'd be back to collect my prize once she had turned 20 and had her Sehijinoji, but she was just as heartbroken as I was.

Earlier, she was engaged to marry Flying Frog, one of Lightning's friends, because she was expecting his baby (That frog had babies everywhere from just about everyone), and well, she miscarried the baby, but Flying was still madly in love with her and still wanted to marry her, so she went through with the preparation, but got cold feet and left the man standing alone at the altar because she couldn't stand his face anymore.

So she comes back to Japan, and she knocks on my door, crying, telling me all of her problems, and I understand her, and she stayed at my house (Nothing happened that night), but as I was saying, we were engaged at 8 (River) and 9 (Me) years old, and once she hit 20, we would have to marry, unless we had found someone else, and then the marriage would be annulled. Moral of the story is that we marry and have 2 sons and a daughter together.

I call River and ask her what is wrong, to which she responds that nothing is happening, she just wanted to wish me a good day at work and that she couldn't wait till I got home. I told her that I loved her and couldn't wait to see her too, which was the whole truth. I look at my watch and see that I only have 3 more hours left of work and then I could go home.

So I let my day progress, clocked out, and drove home. We live in a quaint little house near Kyoto, but a little more rural. I never liked the hustle and bustle of the cities, and besides, I grew up on a farm anyways, Lightning, River, and I. Conquering Storm grew up on a ranch. And yes, all 4 of us were friends, best friends to be exact, before Conquering Storm became Queen Ninja Bitch, Lightning became the Ultimate Ninja Asshole, I became the Stuckup Dick, and River became Nicole Waterson's Temper from The Amazing World of Gumball, which the author does not own.

We loved to play with each other as kids, we even grew up together. It is such a sweet memory, but I hate remembering it because I'll cry. Why did Conquering Storm have to banish Lightning that first time? Why? He, he was my friend, and yet I stood there like an idiot, struck dumb and paralyzed, unable to move as I watched Conquering Storm lie to her father, telling him that Lightning did horrid things to her, touched her in places he shouldn't have (We were teenagers then) when he hadn't, and I was witness to them the whole time.

Conquering Storm kissed Lightning, and Lightning's uncle, Rain, caught them and Conquering Storm ran away crying. And that was why Lightning gave me such an evil eye the next time I saw him, because he did love her, he was just hoping that I would help defend his case and I didn't.

I wipe a tear out of my eye and proceed into my house, kissing my wife as I walk in, and hugging my two older sons, and going to see my 3 year old, bounding happily across the room to get to me, after finally seeing me. I give him a hug, and then we all proceed to dinner. After dinner, I take a shower, slip into the tub, and spend the rest of the night with my family, drinking my jasmine tea until I get a phone call.

I'm kind of thinking that it was one of the companies I own (I own two sets of clothing departments, one called "Kawaii" for girls clothes, and "Harusama" for the boys), but instead, it's Lightning, and this call will forevermore change my life.

"Uh, Leiang," he says, using my real name (Ken was just an American alias to avoid having my real name butchered intentionally and unintentionally over and over again). "I need your help if you do not mind." "No, I don't." I answer him, wondering what could be so dire as to call me. What about his Destructix buddies. Aren't they somewhere near? "I and Antoine have ran into big trouble. Silver has just teamed up with one of Drago's children, and he has raised an army-" "An army," I shout, literally spitting my tea across the room. "Do I look like I have people to spare?" River looks at me, worry spreading across her face like butter to bread.

"Well uh, Leiang, I really hate to admit it, but he's turned the whole damn prison loose and around the country. You're one of the elite. You, alongside my sister, helped free Japan from Eggman's clutches, but sis needs to stay there with the kids, and my wife Maybelle, and Rouge the Bat's daughter, Daylight, will be there to help her, afterall, they're in the mob, and so am I, to touch them is like asking to commit suicide, and the Destructix- the ones still alive *ahem*- will be by my side, as will you." Lightning stated.

"Are you expecting me to search all of Japan for a bunch of damn crooks?" I almost turn histerical. "No, I'm asking you to help me bring down several ringleaders. We will be encountering Silver. We will be fighting his lackies. They will be uber powerful thanks to them killing off Rouge and Knuckles and absorbing the power of the Chaos Emeralds. This may be our final stand, so we're not asking for some pansy ass kid to join us, we're asking for you, because you are strong, and you are what we need." Lightning says.

I'm taken aback by shock. Who in all of the Golden Lotus Flower Goddess could be that powerful? I mean I liberatted Japan, but I didn't do it alone. Why does he come to me? What can I do? I have 3 kids to think about, so it's not just about me anymore. Does he think I'm that indespensable? Why does he think that I'm _that_ powerful? He's the one walking around with Electrokinesis, not I. The only powers I have are from my staff, and that was snapped in two a long time ago, so essentially, I got nothing.

But what does he mean by "we?" I ask him that question, and he responds with, "I've assembled a team of badasses," _Like that really tells me anything._ "So that way we won't be brought down that easily. It is my mission as assembler of this team to make sure all of these men make it back home alive, and even I doubt that."

Doubt? What does he mean, doubt? "What do you mean, 'You doubt?'" I ask him, my voice raising. "Look," Lightning answered, his tone stiff and macbre. "He's already killed Espio, his lackeys took out Rouge and Knuckles, and at least 9 other people are dead, and he's smart, so he knew who to look for first, who'd be the biggest threat. He killed Espio coming after me, but I, I am not as important as you are. And here's an ultimatium, act now and join us, or become Silver's next victim."

What in the hell made him think I would want to join this suicide mission? And who are these badasses he talks about? If it's Sonic, damn him! Damn them all! But if the world is falling to shambles, and this Silver is as big and as bad as he says he is with plenty of backup just as bad as we are, he might come for my family next.

"Will he kill my family?" I gingerly ask. "Yes," Lightning blares at me, as if I'm some sort of an idiot. "He used to be a hero, but now he's gone insane, and I've lived with one for 8 years, so I do know this: He will kill your family to get to you. He came after me, but Espio was in his way, so he killed Espio and started after me next, until Bean and Bark came and saved my ass. So, what do you say? Will you join us?"

I give myself a pause to think. If Silver had done all that to try to kill Lightning, and he's only alive because this Bean and Bark showed up, and he'll kill my wife and kids without a second thought, what a fantastic incentive to make me join! I look at River, and she knows the next words I will say, and my adrenaline thunders through my body, pushing the undenyable dread deeper within my core as I say these exact words:

"Yes Lightning, I will help you."


	2. The Arrival

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 2: The Arrival**

I enjoy one last morning with my family, and then I go to meet Lightning where he said to meet up. I take my car, as it's a long trek on foot to where he lives, and that's in the northern tip of Japan, in Hachlnohe.

I get there and I meet some big names: what's left of the Destructix-Flying, Predator, and Lightning-, Nack, Sonic, Jet, Vector, Charmy, Bean, Bark, Antoine, Shadow, Speedy, And Eggman himself. I lunge at the fat bastard, who has lost a lot of weight, but Sonic and Nack grab me and hold me back, shaking me, screaming, "He's on our side! He's on our side!"

"Traitors!" I yowl. Why would they work with him? He is evil! He is evil! I stamp my feet until I see Antoine. "Mon ami, vous muzt calm down." he says hastily. "Why should I?" I bark. I clench my teeth together so hard I almost break them. I work my ass off to see that the Eggman Empire is no more upon the shores of Japan and _this_ is what Lightning brings to the table? I'll not have one bite of it.

"Don't worry," Lightning states, placing his head low in shame (And he has every right to be ashamed too! Bringing that monster to tag along with us! I'd rather be locked in a room with Sonic that spend a moment with _him!_ ) "I can probably hear Simian cursing at us now for bringing him along, but we had too." Simian was dead? Cuzzy-Wuzzy? Noooooo!

I stop for a moment. Nack and Sonic release their grip on me and I stare intently into Antoine's eyes. "Mon ami, are vous okay?" I nod at him, then humble myself.

"So, what now?" a black and purple puma asks. His eyes were as yellow as a school bus, and he had an air of refinement about him. Royalty. That's what he was. Royalty. But from where? Either way, he looked exhausted, as if he's trecked, by foot, a million miles. "Introduce ourselves, of course." stated Predator brightly and bluntly, as if he had relayed this a million times and the puma was very neglectful of details.

My! Has Predator changed! I used to worship him to the point of a restraining order, and I have heard nothing about him except that he is now a wealthy man with 7 kids- 6 sons and a daughter. I don't know why Lightning said he was wealthy. He is wearing worn out boots, the bandolier he wore when he was younger, the long coat he has displayed on his body looks a hundred years old, his pants have patches on them, and his out-of-place belt looks like it was shoplifted from the destroyed clearance section of a very expensive store.

"Ok," Sonic states, looking at me warily. I cast him an evil glance, and Antoine just sighs and grabs his face, murmurring in French. "The puma is Argyle, he is Blaze's biological, older brother," _As if I'm suppossed to know who Blaze is._ "The green canary thing over there is Valiance," a green canary with yellow rings in his hair nods at me. "Speedy brought his son, Nikai, for some odd reason," father and son jut look at me blankly, but the son seems a tad intrigued of me more than the father. "This green hawk is-" "I already know who he is, I've seen his picture on the news so many times I could identify him a mile away." I interrupt Sonic.

Sonic's eyes narrow at me, his ears too, and he snorts. "Wait, why is a kid here?" Bean asks, looking at Speedy with contempt. "He's here because he is old enough." was Speedy's only answer. "And how old is that?" retorts Bean. "He just turned 17 today." Speedy answers proudly. "Well Happy Birthday," Jet snorts. "Welcome to the military."

It was no lie that I, as a samurai, have had extensive military training, so has Antoine and Predator, and maybe a few others, but certainly not all of them, and if this was a super dangerous mission that calls for a bunch of men in their 40s, why bring that boy along with us, he's not even 18 yet? "Why?" I just say out loud, knowing that we've moved on to a different subject.

I get a few looks, and I can tell you right now I am gushing, and it's not because I think that a few of them are cute. "Uh, what?" I ask, shaking my head, looking even more stupid than I already appear. They all stare at me, and then Lightning's mouth parts for his words, which are cut off by a loud, but distant, "Dad!"

Nack and Jet turn around, with the purple one gasping, "Oh no." Several of the men's faces were contorted into confusion, and then I heard Sonic scream out, "No!" If I'm not mistaken, that's their kids, and they look young, like the oldest is probably 15 young. My eyes widen, and all I can do is watch as Jet says, "Scar." Nack has that defeated, "I've killed my own child" look about him, and Sonic looks ready to faint.

The children weren't greeted by hugs and kisses like they were expecting, and their facial expressions says it all.

"Jessica, I thought I told you to stay home with your sister and stepmother," Sonic chided lightly. "And Treenuts, you knew I'm on an important mission. Do you know how I'd feel if I lost the both of you?" "Well, dad," Jessica stated cheerfully. "I am 18, meaning I'm an adult, and Treenuts is 15 and under my legal guardianship, so I think it's a great idea that we came here. Afterall, I brought band-aides!" She sings the last part and Sonic smacks his face, afraid to hear Treenuts's answer. She never says anything.

"Skylar, I thought I told you to stay in the Special Zone." Nack scolded. "I wanted to help you dad." Skylar answered. Nack sneered, then looked defeated. "Well son, you're already here, but I really detest this. You really have no idea what we're getting into and I don't think it's a great idea for you to be here." Nack said, his ears drooped low in sadness. "I'm a 12 year old man, dad! Please let me have the taste of battle." Skylar says the line in a rehearsed manner, as we all know that most 12 year olds don't talk like that.

"So, I suppose that you're here for the same reason." Jet sighs. "Yes father." Jet sighs again and says, "We will be talking about this thoroughly when we get home." "Yes father." Scar replies with a bow.

"Zo, ve are really bringing ze keedz weez uz?" Antoine asks. "Hai." I say to him. What I'm really wishing for was that I would've been able to say, "Iie."


	3. The Plan

_**I OWN NOONE BUT THE THE OCs AND THE PLOT. ALL CHARACTERS (MINUS OCs) BELONG TO THEIR RIGHTFUL CREATORS, WHO WE THANK FOR INVENTING THEM.**_

 **Chapter 3: The Plan**

We all hide ourselves inside a hotel room and gather in a circle with a map of the world in front of us. The map is dotted with red "x"s on them, an indication on where Silver has recently struck, blue tacks for places he's killed someone (Which was staggering), and green clovers for possible points of interest. I take my place beside Antoine as the Destructix watch over the head of the table like sentry guards, waiting for us all to settle down. The children took their places beside their respective parents.

"What now?" Predator asks, looking at us all, he avoids my eyes especially. "We need a starting point." Charmy states. "Yes, a blind search would be very frustrating." Bean says matter of factly, attitude hanging on his voice. "Well, Nack and I are the best trackers, no offence," Predator smiles before returning to seriousness. "So him and I shall scout ahead for a lead, but first off, we need a word from Lightning and Vector about Silver."

"Why them?" Argon asks. "Because he killed Espio there." was Lightning's only answer as he pointed to a nonspecific place on the map (I'm on the farthest side of the room, I cannot see worth a lick). "What if we run into his army?" I ask. "Capture them," Predator states. "And if they give a little kick, knock them out, bring them here for questioning, then cut their throat."

"It'll all be for nothing if they lie or don't answer." Flying adds. "True, but they will answer when they see what's in store for them." Predator smiles devilishly. "When people are close to death they'll say anything to get you to spare their life." Flying blinks, unamused by Predator's idea.

Predator takes this into consideration and then looks between Lightning and Flying, and it becomes very clear to me who is orchestrating the whole thing, but they are at a loss of ideas as the other two just shrug at the blue hawk. "Jet was best friends with Silver, so maybe he knows." Sonic states, and then we all make Jet very uncomfortable.

"Please, I- he's my friend. I care about him. If I give this information, you must all promise me you'll not hurt him." Jet pleads with us. "So you **do** know." Vector snarls loudly to himself. Jet sneers at him, slapping his hands on the table.

Eventually, Jet cracks under pressure and demands we promise him that we wouldn't harm him once we found and captured him. Every single one of us, but Vector and I, do, and that's because I will defend myself if it means killing a man, and Vector says that he can't promise because anything could happen and he has a job to do, which is understandable, but I know now that I have made an enemy of Jet, and I just met him.

But I can say this though, Antoine was not proud of my answer, and I knew damn well why. Silver and Jet are like a mirror of me and Antoine. I'd die for Antoine, just like Jet would for Silver. And if I was Jet, and Silver was Antoine, I'd worry myself sick over him. And now that Jet is facing the possibility that he might be the one who'll pull the trigger in the end, he's not going to be a happy camper. I know I wouldn't if it came down to me killing Antoine, but on the same token, I'd rather it be me than somebody else, like Sonic.

Jet does tell us that Silver won't hurt him, but he will everybody else. He just wants to talk to Silver, that's all, and maybe Silver might have some sense in him enough to give up, otherwise, I am not in control of what happens afterwards. And that brings up the idea of killing. "You can't kill him," Flying cries out. "He's insane!" "And insane people are dangerous." Charmy shoots back.

"But they aren't in their right frame of mind!" Flying counters. A bunch of arguements ring out, Antoine even joining in, but his opinion was swept away. Cast aside like garbage, and it was a pretty good idea too. In fact, it could make or break the ending of this.

" **Quiet!"** Nack yells before I have a chance too. His son just watched on intently. "Antoine has an idea." I say rapidly, making everyone turn in anticipation. "Ok Antoine," Sonic states. "You have the floor."

Antoine looks at us all, as if to make sure we're paying attention, and says, "I zink maybe ve should let Jet find 'im. Ze vay Jet talkz, 'e knowz zat Zilver von't 'urt 'im, but let'z keep ourzelvez cloze to 'im juzt een caze zomezing should 'appen to 'im. And Flying and ze Deztructix zeem to know a lot about inzanity, zo zey are anozair valuable azzet. Pluz, Zilver eez coming after zome pretty powerful people, een zitiez _full of people_ , zo ve'll need to zet up Jet az bait zere, becauze frankly, taking ze battle out into ze middle of ze countryzide to zave a few zoulz eez not gonna make zingz 'appen. People _vill_ die; eet'z inevitable. But maybe, eef Jet can talk to Zilver, ve can avoid all of ze nazty bloodshed."

"But what about my son!" Lightning relishes out fanatically, his eyes wild with fear. Everybody looks at him, then they look down at the ground, as several of them, even the "pure" Sonic the Hedgehog himself, had children enrolled in Silver's hellbent army. Eggman takes this as a cue to speak.

"I don't know if it's my place to say a word," he starts, and I think, _It isn't._ "But what will we do with the children? To kill somebody else's child is just asking for another upstart. An upstart to ruin friendships, alliances, and those relationships filled with cracks will shatter to pieces. Look, I know that I'm a mean old man who has worked diligently to move himself to a better stature, but all I can say is this, I, Ivo Robotnik, pledge not to kill anyone's children, even if it means that I'll die. I know that I've caused trouble in the past, more pain than I can ever repay, but I ask of you all to at least lend me some trust despite all of the issues of the past, as I too have a daughter to think about."

Basically the whole table, minus Sonic, Jet, and Nack, was glaring at him. We didn't care about _his_ family, or his old man woes, we cared about ours. He is 89 years old, he should be dead by now, but for some apparent reason he. Just. Won't. Go. Away.

"Crawl in a hole and die you evil bastard." And the table applauds Flying's words. Eggman shrinks before our hardened stares, and Sonic, surprisingly, defends him. "Look guys, I know that we've all had a rough past with him, I mean _real rough,_ but Eggman has changed, and I would bet my life on it."

"Think before you throw away your life Sonic," Predator chids, scolding him almost. "As you don't really know everything do you?" "I don't," Sonic answers, raising an eyebrow at Predator. "And that sounds like a threat." Before Predator can even move his tongue, Lightning lashes out, " **There are clones everywhere of us destroying our names! There are even baby clones of us that haven't aged, running amuck! Babies!"**

"And don't forget Fiona's Uranium based blood." Nack adds. "Or Bunnie'z zyborgization." Antoine throws into the fire. "Or whole continents decimated." Bean adds. "And the countless piles of junk laying around from destroyed robots." Charmy includes. "Or the fact that he views us as just animals." Speedy slams. "And the dead bodies." Vector jumps. "And Drago." Predator states.

"Mhm." says all the men in unison. Eggman looked away in shame. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I really am." "What!" Charmy shouts to insult him further. Eggman moved his mouth to speak, but Sonic's voice overrided his.

"Get off of his back people," Sonic growled. "We have Silver and his army to deal with. Eggman was just a petty, fat, weak threat, no offense to you Eggman," "None taken Sonic." Eggman mumbles. "So shut the fuck up and deal with it, as you all were the ones who invited him here in the first place, so quit complaining!"

Lightning stands up, gritting his teeth, snapping, "I brought him along because I felt safer knowing that he was with us than to have him sitting idle planning to take over the world while all of our hands are tied!" Sonic growls at him and lurches his body over the table threateningly, Lightning was not intimidated, but was moved to the point he poised his body in the same way and whispered, "Then do something about it."

"Just leave him alone!" Sonic roared. Lightning didn't even flinch. "No, not until I've witnessed his corpse thrown through a meat grinder!" Lightning booms. This is getting way out of hand. Seriously, they're touching noses with each other, ready to bite, Sonic's deep green eyes locked menacingly on Lightning's colorless, threatening eyes, and the table is too sheepish to move. I can't because I know that Sonic will use this as an incintive to attack me, and my relationship with Lightning is already strained enough without me stirring the pot anymore. I sit silent until another voice intervenes.

"So where do we begin?" asks Argon, possibly the only docile person on the team. Lightning and Sonic break away from each other slowly, as if to anticipate the other to lunge at the retreating opponent. Jet sighs, as if mustering up courage, and says, "Mexico. He'll be in Mexico."

 **I gave Lightning white eyes because his Electrokinesis (The power to control electricity) took away the color of his** _ **iris.**_


	4. Cinco de Mayo

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 4: Cinco de Mayo**

"Ah," Flying sighs with happiness. "It is great to be back in my birthplace, and just in time for Cinco de Mayo too." "You mean, you lived here?" Skylar asks, intrigued. "For 2 years my boy," Flying answers. "I spent the rest of my childhood in other countries like Spain, France, Ukraine, and Great Britain."

"Woah, cool, I wanna be just like him!" Skylar squealed with Treenuts, Scar, Nikai, and Jessica basically salivating at that idea of adventure. "Which place do you consider home?" Treenuts asked, curious of his answer. "Why, beautiful Ukraine of course. It was my father's country, and my favorite uncle is also there too, as is my wife and children."

"So, where will Silver be?" Sonic asks, turning this back into a serious conversation. "In a large crowd, trying to find powerful Mexican people, I think. And he's looking for big names, so what people will Silver go after here?" Jet says.

"El Presidente?" Flying answers with an aire of uncertainty. "Uh, no," Jet replies, not pleased with the answer. "I'm thinking more like, people we know. I don't think he's after the president Flying." "Maybe Silver is naked." Skylar just adds randomly. "Skylar," Nack scolds, cuffing the boy. "Think logically. This is serious, there is no time for games." "I just thought that he'd be naked." Skylar says to himself.

I don't know why or how that thought came up, and I don't want to know. "Um, other than Drago, who's dead, and myself, I really don't know." Flying answers, at a loss of who else could be a known Mexican. "Well, he's insane, so his mind is all jarbled up, I don't think he's going to be going on a scavenger hunt for a specific person when he has an army to do his bidding for him." Speedy answered thoughtfully.

"Right. And that means that we had better be on our guard while we're here." Nack iterates to the group. "Plus it's Cinco de Mayo, people will be partying and it will be easy to get lost or distracted." Flying warns. "But won't a large group of people actually attract more attention?" Bean asks, bringing out a wise idea.

Everyone stops and thinks for a moment before Lightning answers, "You do have a point Bean, but Silver is stronger than he looks. You may be able to take down the Chaotix _and_ the Destructix on your own with the sweep of your hand, but we're no longer being fueled by hormones, and Silver's actually stronger than he looks, so he _will_ pose a threat. I'd rather attract the attention of the Mexican officials than have someone caught alone with Silver and be ambushed by his goons."

Bean nods and follows his orders without question, and we disperse ourselves into the crowd. _Is Bean really that strong,_ I think. _Or is Lightning exaggerating?_ Either way, I never ask him because it doesn't really affect the cause.

So we eventually get lost into the crowd of happy Mexican people. We're surrounded by vivid, bright colors, flaminco dancers, this spicy smelling food, pinatas, excited children, fast-paced music, and just all around joy. There is a few drunkards here or there, as in every country, who took celebration to another level, but other than that, it's all good. "When will we find Silver?" Nikai asks. "I don't know son, I don't know." replies his father.

I too am actually starting to wonder if Silver will actually show up. He might, but I doubt it. I mean, what could Silver accomplish with this crowd?

"Ayuda! Ayuda!" someone screams out. And then we see the crazy man himself. "Silver!" Skylar screams out, earning narrowed eyes from much of the group. "Is that Silver?" Jessica asks as Silver, using his telekinesis, picks up a few people and smashes them into the side of a building, creating a mess. I look on, my face written in defeat.

Sonic gives her a yes, and it wasn't long before we were spotted, and the fight had begun to rage, but not without his army appearing out of the middle of fucking thin air, hopefully tired from cutting people's throats.

"And here I thought that I was gonna get the chance to dance the flaminco." Flying hissed in dissapproval, allowing impulsive Lightning to leap first. Lightning manages to catch Silver off guard, rolling out electric whips and ensnaring Silver from midair, slamming him to the ground, and tazing him.

Silver lets out a yell and I know that I'll be busy in the next 10 seconds. I pull out my katana, for my staff broke two years ago, taking my cloud with it, and I run into battle, with Antoine by my side, ready to slice the (sadly) army of warped children in front of me, but not before I suddenly realize that Lightning was not exaggerating about Bean afterall.

I mean, I may have stepped back, but the blast from Bean's hands, still fuming with his power, clustered into an orangish-yellow ball of energy lapping the body part, still rang through mine, and everybody else's ears, and it was obvious that his power was _destructive._ And all the crumbling buildings, freed Silvers, and the soldiers of Silver's army was removed by the simple wave of the hand.

We all stop for a moment, staring down the damage that El Presidente of Mexico is going to get a kick out of, listening to the sound of silence. This can't be all of it. There's just no way this could be it. "Is this is?" I ask, speaking aloud my thoughts. "Nah," Vector said, pulling out a rifle from hammerspace. "He's got a hell of a lot more where that came from."

"Then where is it?" Treenuts asks. "And where's Silver?" Nikai asks, as if to finish the sentence for her. "That was just the decorations," Argon stated. "We're still waiting for the party." "If Silver hasn't left the area already." I whine. If he's gone, then there's no point in staying here.

"When I was insane, I just viewed everything as a game," Flying explained, putting his experience to good use. "When something backfired on me, ooh, did it ever make me squeal in delight and come back for more. People like us are a tasty buffet, and he'll be coming back for seconds and thirds, so even if he doesn't come back right this minute, you can bet your soul that he'll be back."

"Aren't you still considered insane?" Sonic asked. "I still have my episodes, but other than that, I'm alright." smiled Flying. "Just remember, this is just all part of the fun to him." Predator added. "I just wish that we wouldn't have to hurt him." Jet stated gloomily to himself.

"We all made a promise to you," Charmy said, trying to cheer up the saddened hawk. He eyes me because I know that I made no such promise, and neither did Vector. "And we're going to keep that promise to the best of our ability." the bee finished.

"Why do I have a nasty feeling that this is going to turn into one promise we can't keep." Shadow sighed. When I first met Shadow, I thought of him as evil. Now that I am a middle aged adult, I now understand why he always keeps that scowl on his face. But matter of the fact is, is that we all know in the end that we're all gonna stand in line and take turns cutting Jet's throat if something _did_ happen to him, because I got a feeling that something will, and Charmy and Vector aren't here to save the day, they're here to subdue and prosecute, which will only help make the situation stickier in the end. I just pray to the Lotus Flower Goddess that we aren't going to have to kill Jet also.

Jessica, Sonic's daughter(?), who, if could be described in only two words would be, "Ditzy Blonde," looked out towards the horizon, her eyes locked on some nonexistant point, and waves, "Fast! We're coming to get Silver!" Did I mention that she's nowhere near blonde in hair color?

We all turn to where she was calling, and lo and behold, there was a boy hedgehog with blue fur and brown highlights in his hair, probably 12 or 13 years old, glowering back at us like we were a pack of wolves. Beside him could only be characterized as a boy lynx with purple eyes, which I knew as Cookie (And was shocked over), who looked nothing like his father and twice as evil. Then there was a deep green frog, even deeper than Flying's skin, with turquoise eyes all aflare at us, and in front of them was an orange hawk with dastardly green eyes, deepening his scowl into a smirk at us.

I know that the Japanese have a habit of trying not to break character, but Lightning's face was void of any and all emotion, Flying looked as if he'd been drinking heavily, and the last of Sonic's youth vanished from his. If we were human, they'd all be a pale white; paler than a Geisha. My blood runs cold at the thought of those kids too.

All of my children are too young to understand what is going on around them, but I feel the other's pain. What if it was me staring down my child from across the battlefield? How many others have children in Silver's army? What have they been offered that would make them want to join a psycopath? What will happen next?

"What do you want?" Nack snarls at them. Rock smirks visibly, coming towards us. We brandish our weapons in a threatening message, but the man doesn't even blink. "Why, you're heads of course." he states matter of factly. In fact, he sounded more like he was bored to see us. "Give me back my brother!" Treenuts shouts.

"I'll give you back your brother," Rock promised. "If you turn your back on these men right now. A lady of such a fair face of yours should not be hanging around a buch of old drunks with nothing better to do than salivate over your young, voracious body."

Oh the infuriation! I'm not old, and I'm not going to let some man, who's probably no older than 22, push me around at 47 years old! And I don't drink! Lightning may, but he's not a rapist, like this fuckover here has made all of us out to be. In fact, we're all married! And he sounds like the hungry one, not us. Plus, he should know that we're after Silver's head, not Sonic's daughter. I'll be apalled for the next few months just at the thought of _that._

I just pray Treenuts isn't getting ready to do what we all think she's getting ready to do. Her face is so conflicted she might actually do it, and her damn brother standing there and beckoning her like a light doesn't help either. Plus, I'm surprised that Sonic or Scar hasn't already hit the man yet with the looks they're giving him, and Rock is smiling about the fact that he's gotten under their skin especially.

"All of you, Silver gives you refuge." Rock goads, imploring the children to join. We're all at a loss of words right now, but it's more of curiosity than anything. At least Skylar and Jessica have the cloak of stupidity to hide them, and then this exchange happens, breaking all of the glares, growls, and grumbles:

"Well, Flying," Jet says to the frog, who was pulling out a two-sided axe, and quickly checking the pistol in the holster of his pants for ammo. "You still wanna dance?" "Nah," Flying waves. "I don't have my dress for that." And then he leaps into action, and he's quick, tough, and hard to guard.

Rock takes a few hits before Fast, Cookie, and that green frogboy with the turquoise eyes even register that they're being attacked. Everyone jumps in to help. I attack the frogboy relentlessly, when out of nowhere, my monkey ears pick up new comrads to keep us busy.

I hear their screams, and they sound a lot older than the last wave that Bean took out with a simple flick of his wrist, and I don't think he's gonna do that anymore, it's too risky now.

"Dad!" Jessica squeals, knocking into me and stomping on my tail, causing me to shriek, drop my sword, and get a nice medallion across my chest. She's still standing on my tail, and the frogboy is still advancing hard on my ass. "Jessica!" I say to her. She looks at me and goes, "Did you know that we're being attacked?"

I grunt and roll my eyes, and knock her off of her feet so that way my head won't dress the ground. Mexico is a beautiful country, but I don't want to be buried in it, and I swear, with Jessica (Skylar included), I'm just waiting for her to point at a rock and exclaim, "Father, that's a rock!" Plus I know that I'm being a hypocrite too, but I'm not the only one who does it, Predator Hawk.

At least Antoine knows parkour, because he moves like fluid through the crowd making sure that the frogboy isn't riding my ass no more. "Are you ok?" he asks in French. I know a little French, so it's just enough to go, "Je vais bien" and collect my sword from the ground, with my tail that's whining in pain, and help him. Then Flying takes over, saying that it's his son and that they need to have a little "father and son bonding time" together. We do not question him and help take care of the random fox person standing beside 3 wolves that were giving Argon and Bark a hell of a time.

As we go there, we start hacking and slashing away, me and Antoine showing **huge** differences in our tactics. Everyone Antoine hasn't accidently killed has been incapacitated in some way or form, and everyone that I've hit is lifeless on the ground, or watching the sky as the life ebbs out of their bodies.

We run across the field and I imediately plunge my bloodied katana into the base of the neckbone of one of the coyotes, who shrieks in pain, my sword going through him, splashing his blood onto Sonic, Treenuts, and their adversaries. Antoine howls for some reason and then for another, the battlefield just freezes in place.

Dead frozen we all stand, until the enemy realizes that Antoine is not one of their own, or a wolf, and then continues fighting, and in the midst of the violence, Silver appears again for round two.

"Halt!" Silver cries, as if he was sane. His minions stop their fighting as Silver lands in front of Jet and stares him down. He walks up to us, and asks, "Would all of you like to talk?" It's a friendly gesture, but don't be fooled, he's as mad as a hermit and twice as deadly.

"Silver." I hear Jet coo softly. Antoine and I share a look, but we don't take our eyes off of the wolves and cat people for 2 seconds. "Silver, we've come to help you." Jet says. I'm at a loss at what to do. I can see out of the corner of my eye what is going on, but do I dare take my eyes off of my enemies and draw closer? Or do I stay put in my hostile stance and take the chance of frightening Silver?

It was only a few minutes, and it seems that Jet was talking common sense into Silver, possibly putting our story to a halt right here, until Charmy and Vector grab him by the arms and make the crazed hedgehog scream like a maniac. "No," Jet screams. "You're hurting him!" "You're enraging him!" Flying voices in. Jet lunges, but Flying catches him by his elbow, and we can only watch as Silver causes a wave of energy to whip out and cross the fields, blowing everybody off of their feet.

Silver lifts himself up into the air, throws a few psychic projectiles at us, and then shouts, "I will be returning for Jet!" And just like that, he teleports away. His minions foolishly murmur, "Let's go to France, and that's how we know next on where he's gone to.

Either way, we've done a number on Mexico, and I'd hate to be us when the Presidente of Mexico gets a look at this:

What Bean hasn't already destroyed has had lines etched into it from Silver's psychic waves hitting the ground, live wires were dancing all around the places that weren't charred to crisp, thanks to Ligtning's electrokinesis, dead people were everywhere, their blood being defined by the black ground, a couple of bullet holes and shurikans layed scattered all around, and the rest of the carnage looked like a warzone.

"Viva a Mexico." Sonic says softely. Flying smacks him on the back of the head, and I don't blame him, that comment is not really needed at all. "So where do we go now?" Vector asks, as he and Charmy hobble towards us, as we all gather together. I barely get the word France out before Jet is tearing them a new one. He had to be restrained.

"I had it under control," he says. "And you idiots had to make him mad and ruin it for us all!" He's correct, had the Chaotix not lifted a finger, this trip would have been over with. Now we have to drag our asses to France, across the world, and fight Silver there, which none of us has really been able to do thanks to the annoying flies Silver calls his army.

By the way, how did how did he round that many up? And how so fast? Maybe he'll answer that in France, our next destination when I can get all of my bloodthirsty comrads to wash the taste of battle from their mouths.

 **I'm sorry that this chapter is long. I can't promise, but I'll try not to make the next chapter as long.**


	5. Les Contrefacons en France

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 5: Les Contrefacons en France**

The Eiffel Tower, the symbolism of France. It was a sight to behold when I first saw it, and it's still a sight to behold now. Several others gasped, wonderlust sparkling through their eyes as it swept over the beauty of the City Of Lights, except for Argon, who looked more as if someone had hit him with a brick.

"What's wrong?" Vector asks the man. "Nothing." answers the puma blankly. "No, something is. You're mad." Vector persists. "Can you not see me smiling?" Argon replies in a monotone voice. Predator Hawk steps in and says, "Vector, I think you should realize that his people don't emote like we do." Vector, baffled, only destroys my view as he steps in front of me, in order to say, "Are you implying Argon to be an alien?" Then Valiance, in all his glory, pushes both me and Vector into the Siene.

Wonderful. Just what I always wanted, a dip into the lovely Siene at 5 in the morning. The water is freezing, as it is winter in France, and I just know I'll be having pneumonia before the week even finishes out.

They send down a rope for us to climb down, and we climb up, greeted by warm towels from Nikai and Scar, the only children up at the time, and sent into the ship to warm up. We pass by Skylar's quarters, who's still sleeping like a log, and I don't blame him. He's been shot in the side.

Nack glares at me like I'm some kind of intruder, even though he's the one that left the door open in the first place. He doesn't dare leave his son's side, but continues to glare at me as I pass by him, without any emotion. Then we hear footsteps behind us, and I breathe, "Oh great, it's Nack." "What?" Vector emits in a startled tone. I just knew that weasel would come after us! I just knew it! I turn around, saying his name, only to find myself face to face with Valiance and Antoine.

Antoine turns and looks at me with his good eye, and says, "Huh? I am not Nack, I am Antoine, tu ami." Valiance had his 2 cents to add too, "I'm Valiance, and I just wanted to make sure you're alright. My aren't you wet!" He touches my fur repeatedly, making me uncomfortable, then placing his hands on my chest and tracing out the scar that now resides there.

I would say something along the lines of, "Yeah, I'm wet no thanks to you!" But right now I'm at a loss of words, and it's not because Valiance is handsome either. Then, as if he was just asking me to help him wash his car, he says, "Are you thinking about killing Nectarine?"

"What?" I ask, now at a loss of what the hell is going on. I have no idea who Nectarine is, and neither does Antoine. Vector saves the day with, "Go bother Predator Hawk, he knows about a conspiracy to kill Nectarine on her birthday." "He does!" Valiance shouts as if he's heard that there's a new theme park opening up in his name. "Where?" he asks with another burst of energy. "On the deck." I say blandly. Valiance squeals and cheers for us before taking off to find Predator above deck.

Vector and I then take this incentive to retire to our rooms, quickly, with Antoine stepping into mine, me locking the door behind him, and then I change my clothes and we just talk about random things. Nothing serious, just random things, and when we walk out, we encounter Predator Hawk, who has probably been standing at the door for a good hour and a half. Why didn't he just knock? I ask him that, seeing that he's been standing there for a while, and the only thing he says is, "If I knock on the door, someone's died." He walks off, and I really wonder what he really intended to say. We walk towards the dining hall and see Shadow standing there, looking at us as if we've offended him. "What is it?" I ask the angry hedgehog cautiously.

"Nobody likes my cooking." Shadow said stiffly. "I haven't tried it yet." I say. For some reason, this offends him even more, and he goes on some tirade of, "I see your damn French-ass cook is with you. Why don't you ask him to cook for you if you're not too busy getting your fill from him? Damn it all! And for the record, I'm not racist against those French people!" Could've fooled me. Shadow walks off indignantly, cursing as he goes, and I look at Antoine and ask, "What did I say?" Antoine shrugs, and we enter into the hall, where delicious food is placed on the table.

It smells and looks divine, so nothing wrong yet, until we taste it. Half of the food tastes like plastic, the other half tastes like it was fished from last week's garbage. The bread was three sheets into the wind, and the drinks were solid boulders, if that was even accomplishable. I look at Antoine, and he gets the message, and we both cook actual food, in which Shadow, being Shadow, smacks it out of our hands as we offer him a plate, and stomps off somewhere, grumbling. Treenuts and Jessica clean up the mess, and Antoine just stands there, blinking.

Later, we're in the French countryside, at an actual time where the darkness and fog haven't folded curtains onto the show. It's beautiful with a few cute houses here and there, and Antoine, who is beside me, inhales deeply, as if he could smell it all at once, and says something in French. I try to copy what he's doing and ultimately find myself falling off of the boat. Again.

"Moi, 'ow clumzy vous are, Leiang." Antoine giggles as he hoists me back on board with a sour look on my face. I pass him a glare, and he continues to laugh. "How old are you?" I ask, fuming under embarassment. "Uh, az old az tu," Antoine takes literally. "Ve are ze zame age." I sigh, and then ask, "How long till we get to-" "How long till we dock?" Shadow rages, backing Sonic up into a corner.

Sonic looks at the water and gulps, and my reaction: I laugh my fucking ass off! I really do still hate him, as he does me. Sonic pricks his ears back and growls at both Shadow and me, and then the boat rocks hard, dropping everyone standing anywhere near the edge into the water, and that means, Antoine, Sonic, Shadow, Jet, and I are taking a swim.

I immediately spring up from the water, clutching Antoine, not because I can't swim, but because it's freezing. And Sonic, he's suppossed to be flailing right now, but he's not. He still looks nervous, but he can swim, like someone just now learning to swim, but he could, and it may save his life one day.

We swim to the river, only to see Bark, the guy who never talks, and his friend, Bean, pulling the boat to, drum roll please, the other side of the river! And he's the one that tipped everybody upon it overboard! Meaning, Antoine, Sonic, me, Jet, and Shadow are going to have to swim across it again. We're all gonna have a cold from this.

We eventually arrive to the other side, and a few people question Bark, who just moves his hands in odd ways to reply to them. Bean, his friend who's covered his eyes with a cloth, translates for him, and I just happen to drop 35 years and ask, "Are you deaf?" Bean just replies, as his friend continues to move his hands in the odd way, "No. I am mute." I wonder how Bean was able to do that, his eyes are shielded by his bandana, so it makes me wonder how he was able to actually see Bark, and I can't just rip the cloth off of his eyes, he'd probably kill me for that. Maybe he's like Antoine, who's missing an eye, but still sees all.

Then I poke my nose into Bean's business and ask him about the cloth. He just says that his eyes were cut from his head as a punishment for not sharing his powers and leaves it at that. He does warn me to not touch his eyes though, because he'll kill me faster than Bark will, and he dodges my question about how he was able to know what Bark was saying, and then walks away, Bark following him, chastising me in sign language, as if it's my fault that I don't really know or understand sign language (because, thanks to the goddess above, as far as I know, all the people around me in my family are healthy, save for the fact that some of the women die in childbirth and we all live to a long, healthy age of one-hundred).

When we all gather our bearings together, we march off to the desolate meadow, just yards away, to freeze our asses off in hopes of Silver showing his batshit crazed face. When we arrive to our destination, approximately 16 minutes later, we meet the Destructix.

Not our Destructix, but a weird roboticized form of them. "Metal Destructix!" Lightning stamps indignantly. "Metal Destructix?" I mouth. "The damn robotic copies of us Eggfuck made!" Flying gnashes. Then Predator joined into the chorus, "We've been trying for years to rid ourselves of them. Stand back and let us do the work, you'll all only get in our way." "What," Skylar rasps, finally getting ready to say something intelligent. "There's 4 of them and only 3 of you, where's the 4th one?" Almost.

The Destructix gave him a grave face, and then the robotic Destructix swooped in for the attack as we watched. "This is gonna get messy, mate," Nack said, staring out into the opening. "Come along Skylar." Nack helps his injured son away from the warring doubles, who were sliding through the battle like it was a playground. Of course I miss yet again, another epic sight, thanks to somebody's fat ass getting in my way.

This time it's Antoine's, who is leading me away from the robotic Simian body that lands where I stood 3 seconds ago. The body was massive, so I would have, at the least, lost an arm. On the other hand, being crushed would be a quick and painless death in comparison to being sent into cardiac arrest from a charge of electricity I had to save Antoine from.

Ya know, if Lightning would just use his electrokinesis to short circuit the robots, this fight would be over a whole lot sooner, but then again, this is Lightning we're talking about. **He's insane!** Flying's thoughts are more thought out than his are, even before he got help for his _issues._

How do I know? I became a member of the Destructix when he was still just a giggling loon, but by then, the team had gotten **huge!** Espio, Tippey the Frog, Anne the Hawk, me, Maybelle the Lynx, Speedy, and Nic had all joined the club, and the most ironic thing is, is that the Destructix were thinking about disbanding to go back to their own home countries (Well, most of us went to Japan), and they do eventually, but I don't think they were anticipating a brood of people to come swarming in on them all of the sudden.

Neither was I, but at least I got to be near my 4 most favorite people in the world (Antoine falling in 1st place)- the original four members of the Destructix! Well, Antoine always did say that I was the Destructix's Tails the Fox equivalent. I ramble sometimes you know.

Anyways, people had scattered back to that metal boat Antoine had managed to get for us (Which was pitiful given the fact that he's the Prince of France, who's in France right now, and knowing that Silver is genre savvy and will probably be expecting to find us on an old fishing boat, or a yacht, in the waters), including me and Antoine, making a mad dash for the boat that's now sinking thanks to the Destructix throwing the Robot Flying Frog into the hull of the ship, turning it into a water fountain, and ruining our chances of a good, hot meal sometime later.

The people on the boat immediately ran off of it, as Predator screamed, "Throw him into the water! Throw him into the water!" And he can only be meaning the Metal Flying Frog right in front of us that Jessica was looking at as if it were a pile of gold, who helped the damn thing up. The Metal Flying Frog opened it's mouth and charged up a laser canon as Jessica just stood there.

The next thing I know, Eggman tackles Jessica, pulling down Treenuts with her as she uses her super speed and almost collides with the metal man (which, according to Sonic, actually hurts more than he lets on), and then we all have a muscle spasm. Sonic, who was standing across the battle field, is somehow next to the fallen people, and none of them remembering standing up. Eggman shakes out of his trance quickly, and then does something magical before our very eyes.

We see Eggman trying to help the Destructix, and we all know that it's to clean up the mess he made and redeem himself in their eyes, but the Destructix are cold, and they don't forget anything easily. It's gonna take a hell of a lot more convincing than that to get them to turn towards the cheek of compassion for him.

Also, he doesn't toss the robot into the water, intsead, he disarms it, and says, "If this has something to do with Silver, then this robot will have no choice than to listen to it's master."

Oh, so it's just like the real Destructix: Eager to take jobs from a banana if it spoke to them. Nice. Eggman tries to join into the fight, but the Destructix just sneer and shove him out of the way, even going as far as to punch him in the mouth and scream out, "Fuck off" as to get him to leave. And well, Eggman was actually more of a hinderance than a help. Eggman cuts his loss and goes back to interrogate that robotic Flying, and then dismantling him and tossing him into the pretty waters of the Siene.

So, we learn that the Metal Destructix are in no way affiliated with Silver. They're just rogue robots looking for a purpose in this world, like the real Destructix were. Actually, it's kind of scary that out of all the clones the Destructix have of themslves running around (How I know: I saw Lightning one day, asked him about his kids, and he looked at me as if I'd gone mad. The real Lightning would have started out with something like, "Oh, they're doing well this morning, but..."). I don't know if they're just that damn fascinating or what, but there's plenty of clones to go around.

We also learn why the Destructix wanted to fight the robots alone so bad: They wanted to get rid of the fakers. Robot Flying claims that the fleshy Destructix are just fakes, and yet he couldn't tell us one thing Flying would have done. We told him that the real Flying was a serial killer that loved to smile (and that's just an understatement), and the robotic Flying's response, "Oh, he does?" Red flag #1.

Number 2 was that he didn't even sound like he even knew why the Destructix was together in the first place. Really, _nobody_ does. They've told so many stories to so many people to protect themselves, only _they_ know the answer. Fiona knows just as much, but she's dead, everybody else was just out in left field trying to figure them out.

Red Flag #3 came in when he asked us, "Who are these Destructix units you speak of?" And that just decorated the cake with a bow, and out went the crazy frog robot counterpart of Flying Frog. I'm sure he'll be happy to hear about this later.

Either way, this buys us enough time to watch the Destructix kick their robot counterpart asses, and the last three (Simian, Lightning, and Predator) take off into the sky at a blinding speed, Predator chasing after them for a few feet before being shot out of the sky in a genius manner.

Robo Lightning shot a jolt of electricity at him, and while Predator dodges that one, he's shot out of the sky by the combined blast of the Robo Simian and Robo Predator, with him being hit by an explosion, and feathery knives locked into his shoulder bones.

There's another muscle spasm, and then Predator is on the ground, in Sonic's hands. How he's doing that, I'll never know; but I do know that it has something to do with all these muscle spasms I'm having. We rush over to him, the other members of the Destructix, as well as the Chaotix, crowding around him. Predator Hawk coughed, making blood spit out of his shoulder where the blade was.

Despite their best attempts to hide their wounds for the sake of their friend, the rest of the Destructix did not leave that fight clean. Flying had a black eye and a new scar across his nose to form, as well as a few scrapes and bruises. Lightning's body had contained so much electricity he was a walking afro right now, as well a few new missing teeth and bloody knuckles, and what looks to be a broken wrist.

But it couldn't compare to Predator's pain. Skylar, sensing that Predator was hurting real bad, pulled the bandages off of his bullet hole (Which I will explain why he was shot: Treenuts and him decided to spend some time together as Scar and Jessica recieved their awkward Coming Of Age speeches from their fathers, and the two met Fast the Hedgehog. Treenuts had a gun, and Fast tricked her into handing him the gun and he shot Skylar in the side as a result.) and placed it on his shoulder, saying, "You'll be alright. I promise."

"No," Predator declined, pushing the bandages towards the boy, groaning as he did. "This is for you to use to heal. I am a grown man, I can doctor myself. You, my boy, are still reliant on your father and mother to provide for you. When you become a man and see someone injured, then you can sacrifice your bandages for a greater cause than your own."

Skylar dips his head and hugs the hawk, before hobbling back over to his father- safe and sound. Safe and sound. These are the words I want to hear when I describe the welfare of children. Speedy the Dumbass put his own child in danger, and the others, their children came by choice, and they were not safe and sound. I don't like that at all.

Lightning takes the blue hawk out of Sonic's hands before saying, near the decible of a whisper, "We'll take him out into the open and remove the blade Sonic. Just make sure everybody else is alright." Sonic nods and replies in the same manner, "Ok Lightning. We'll be waiting for you when you get back. Is there anything I can get for you?"

Lightning looks around, blinks, then goes, "Seeing that the ship has mysteriously vanished-" "Sunk." Vector tomes in. "Sunk, I mean," Lightning reinstates with a cough. "And that we now have nothing to help ourselves, I'll call you when something major is needed Sonic. And in no offense to any one of you, it's just that if something should happen to-"

"Ah Lightning," Predator waves. "You always were lookin' out for me the hardest weren't ya?" "Don't forget your shadow." Shadow chimes in, pointing to the ex-mad frog. "And how could I forget the magnificent Flying Frog," Predator states in grandeur before he returns back to his bored look. "Now, could somebody please bandage me up?" "Nah," I say, trying to join in on the fun and lighten up the mood. "Why don't we just leave you like that?"

As a man of Japan, sarcasm is used just as much as a shattered window in the winter, and so, this was probably my 10th attempt at sarcasm, which I learned from the witty Fench Antoine, and not Sonic, which I would only decribe his as Asscasm, and based on people's faces, I did not get the point I was trying to make across.

Predator Hawk and Flying Frog were not amused, with Flying's look being cross between volitile, bothered, and unfriendly. Predator's was more of a look of hatred than anything else. Lightning gave me a blank stare and shook his head. We both knew well that when I became the official Destructix cheerleader I had already gotten on a few people's badsides.

Predator even wrote me a poem titled, "Restraining Order." That was a lovely poem (And no, I'm not being sarcastic). And Simian would only snort in my direction. What a way to treat your cousin!

"They'll be back." Flying states with certainty before he and Lightning carries Predator farther out into the field to adress his wounds (They didn't want his screaming to draw negative attention from any passerby law enforcement to the large group of men hovering over a tortured body, and they didn't want people to be scared witless when the screaming starts as the blade comes out of his shoulder).

They leave and we all gather and form a semicircle around Sonic, a few of us turning our heads towards Predator's pained shrieks. "What is it Sonic?" Shadow asked. "Who put your fucking ass in charge?" I glare at him. I hate him. I really do. Sonic glares at me, flattening his ears and giving out angry hedgehog noises. I give him an angered monkey screech and then Bark places his massive body between us, waving his hands in that odd manner again as Bean interprets, "If this continues any further, I will be forced to eat the both of you."

I give him an, "Are You Serious" look. His response: A dead serious look on his face, his red eyes piercing into my soul. Antoine touches my shoulder and looks at me, once more shaking his head in dissapproval at me. Bark still won't move, staring me down, and well, I catch a look from his sides and see that Jet is standing shoulder to shoulder with Sonic. Nack has sandwiched himself behind me, his son looking at me with a smile as Sonic begins to speak.

"Well, the Metal Destructix was here, but no Silver, where else could he be?" Sonic sighs. Then out of nowhere, Nack gasps and falls onto the snow, his son following his actions. For a minute there, I think they're having an anurism, until they start to speak, and they do it ominously. The next words they're saying is the words to this prophecy:

 _My breath to take_

 _My soul at stake_

 _Take away the pain of those that rake_

 _To see the end is almost near_

 _For there is still the dragon to fear_

 _To sacrifice for the many_

 _And to die for the plenty._

They wake up from their poem gasping. They look up and stare at Jet, tears in Skylar's eyes, and says to him, "You will never see the end."

 **End of Chapter 5**

 **The title in English is: The Fakes in France. I also have all respect for the French nation, culture, and people. And I do apologize for the length of this chapter. My imagination takes hold and runs far and wild sometimes.**


	6. During The Night in Sweden

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 6: During The Night In Sweden**

Night had fallen onto the sleepy brigade that I was in. We had been searching for 8 months now, and well, it was getting a little tiresome. Silver had the largest army the world had ever seen pouring out from the shadows like they were bred from it, only for them to dissappear again, with him being just as elusive. We've managed to land a few hits on him, at the most, and he's a lot stronger than we expected, but he's always made it out, somehow, even when we broke both of his legs.

Our main problem with Silver is, "Where did he go?" It was an awful game of Where's Silver, and my patience with both he and Jet were waning. I've tried talking to Jet about it, but our personalities clash into a screaming match, and the next thing I know, I have like 5 people jumping down my throat with swords with Antoine as the mediator. So yeah, I've made quite a few enemies in the last 8 months, so after this is all over, who will I have coming after me?

Sonic? He steps one foot onto Japanese soil and I'll send him back to America in a bodybag. Jet? I wish Silver would just turn on him and kill him already. He hasn't struck me as a trustworthy person since the moment I first laid eyes on him. Nack? He's as much of a mediator as Antoine, but his word doesn't seem to stand a chance unless it's ringing through Sonic's ears. Argon? He looks like a cheap laugh. Charmy? Little did I know, he was a ninja, but he keeps quiet unless things get way out of hand.

Vector? That fatass is hard to put up with if you don't have the patience for his attitude. Predator Hawk? I wish he'd like me more. I really don't know what he doesn't like me. Flying? I'm not sure if he really likes anybody. Bean and Bark? I keep my distance from the both of those wierdos. Bean looks even more dangerous that Flying Frog, and those Silent Types are usually the ones who snap your neck in the end. Eggman? I've made an enemy out of that fat tub of lard and I just don't care!

Speedy? By now, I've realized that I've just about alienated everybody, but with him, he's out for blood. Why? Because I told him I hoped his son gets mutilated since he's so eager to turn his son into a man, but I wasn't expecting to watch him turn into the Human Torch and attack me with a sword. In fact, I didn't realize that he was an alien at all, until now. Everybody who saw got the long, "We're Surrounded By Aliens All The Time Actually" talk. Well, now I know all of my fantasies I had as a boy are true.

Anyways, it's nightfall, and it's my turn for guard duty. Now this is mainly composed of me marching around the camp in a circle, scouting out trouble, occassionally ducking into the depth of the camp (Which is 3 crowded trailers with 7 to a tiny box that is more of a sweat factory than anything else) to make sure somebody hasn't gone crazy and slit the throats of everyone around him.

So I make my rounds, occassionally peering into a trailer, which would be Sonic, Shadow, Jet's, as well as few others, still deep in sleep, right now. Shadow always sleeps with a gun, if he even sleeps at all, and just like him, everybody has their guns right under their bodies; except Sonic, whose daughters are crammed into his body, a rifle held tightly in hand, his ears occassionally pricking upwards to catch subtle noises (as a hedgehog, his hearing is better than mine, and he is nocturnal). It's a bit insulting because he seems to like to accuse us all of staring at his daughters, or having it out for them.

It's true that none of us has seen a woman in a long time, but that doesn't mean scream "Rape" and accuse all of your buddies of this hanus act. It doesn't help with Rock prowling around, trying to get into her panties to have that "I Love You Sweetheart, Now I'm Gonna Turn On You" moment everyone adores.

And let us not forget the lovely Fredrick and Cookie, the sons of Lightning and Flying, my aren't they just a lovely bunch of boys that love the nightlife too much. They're the **whole** reason I'm out here! They like to assemble little guerilla brigades in the middle of the night and send them after us, and I'm supposed to scream my loudest and wake the camp, which is also why I have a grenade with me right now. A grenade will wake them faster than a gunshot should danger arise, but for now, everything's clear.

Then I get to the trailer the Destructix resides in, and they're not their. First off, I think, _Maybe they went to go take a piss and felt safe in numbers?_ But then, Valiance wouldn't be staring at me, twitching his head from side to side, trying to figure me out.

 _Dear Goddess, don't let him scream._ I silently pray. If he sounds his alarm, it's over, I have to find out what the Destructix are up to. I don't know why I need to know, but I just have this gut feeling that it's not about anything good.

Immediately, I run to Antoine's trailer, and silently walk in, prodding his body with my feet. Now common sense tells me that a gun will get him up faster, but combat will rock the trailer and wake everybody up and start a gigantic hassle. Plus, the dreaded Bean and Bark are sleeping only inches from my feet, and they really freak me out, so, don't wanna wake them. Nack, the sureshot that never misses, is on the other side of the room, clutching Skylar as if something would steal his precious jewel right from under his arms, a revolver in his hands.

It doesn't help that all of our realities revolve around the fact that we may die tonight. We may die tomorrow. We may die a week from now. We may die at any time. That is all our realities, and Nack is fighting hard to make sure Skylar gets out of this alive. I cannot tell you how many times we've packed Nack on a gurnea after a fight because he was, in literal and metaphorical sense, taking so many bullets for his son I'm surprised he's still alive. And as an added bonus, I can vouch that getting shot with a pure blast of psychic energy, or a psi ball, does not feel good. In fact, it's a spreading, lingering pain that leaves you with a migraine for ages.

Antoine, groggily complains for a few rounds, until I tell him to shut up, and then he looks at me and whispers softly, "Vhat, mon ami?" "The Destructix are gone." I say in my Japanese accent. "'Nd zees conzernz ooz 'nd vhy?" Antoine retorts sleepily, yawning. "Because I have an inkling that it is important." Is what I wanted to say, but I somehow managed to slack on my English lessons, so it came out more like, "It 'mp'r't'nt." At least Antoine understood it, as he speaks English better than I do.

"Ok, ok," Antoine brushes, rousing himself up. "But virzt, let moi pee." He does, and then we leave the trailer, Valiance silently watching us, barely nodding off to sleep.

We get out wide into the open air, and immediately, I ask Antoine to put his nose to good use, with him saying something along the lines of, "Zat vould be zmart." Almost immediatly, after he starts sniffing the ground, he has their scents and lets out a howl. I punch him in the arm and glare at him. We don't need to wake everybody and make them even more paranoid about the world right now.

"Zorry," Antoine blushes. "Force of 'abit." "Coyote habits." I say in return. "At leazt I 'aven't eaten anyone yet." Antoine replies, still blushing. "Good point." Extremely good point. You've always got to watch out for that now because there are still cases of predators turning on their friends and making a quick lunch out of them, and I'm not exactly high on the food chain enough to deter unwanted company looking for a snack. And yes, people eating each other like our primitive counterparts did long ago is still a problem.

But the fact still remains, all of Drago's bastards, save his rape child by Hershey, are out to get us, and they're wolves, which also howl in the dead of night like Antoine just did. I really don't understand why you'd want to follow in your father's footsteps, after knowing and probably overhearing what he's done to people at least a thousand times a day for your whole life, and still think that it is the best way to behave.

The original Drago was thought dead, till he came back several years later to cause more trouble, only this time, he stepped on the wrong feet. He went after the Destructix's children, kidnap Bean's eldest daughter, Sugar, and Bark too, and decided that it was high time he took over the Eggman Empire, which no longer existed since Robotnik denounced his reign of terror with an, "I relinquish all the lands to the people I stole it from, and I will start the process of deroboticizing loved ones." I still can't believe Sonic let him live.

So he took a detour to Eggman's lab, tried to rape his daughter, until _he_ walked in on the act trying to be performed (I don't know how, he didn't have balls; they were cut off when Eggman placed the cybernetics on every part of his body except his head), and then what happened next wasn't pretty. Eggman won that battle by a longshot, being the Father of Roboticization, and put the monster down by detonating all of his parts and leaving only the head alive.

By the time Sonic, Nack, and Jet had shown up to give him more lessons on how to reform to a good little egg, Drago's robot body was being used for scrapmetal, and his head was floating in a jar, still alive, with his tongue and eyes ripped out.

As for the Destructix, and Bean, Sugar and Bark were returned, after strenous torture (Having scissors dug into their eyes, being shot, little Sugar having her left eye drilled out of her head, nails shot into Bark's sides, being hung upside down by chains and starved to the point Bark had to be tranquilized because he was trying to eat people, that sort of thing), and the Destructix no longer had their sons patrolling the street to look for the bastard that attempted to kill their daughters. And then Draco shows up as another Drago.

But back to the main point, since Drago and his hellion prodige, Draco, everybody has been up and arms about the children of Drago, which are many (Seriously, who could be attracted to him knowing what he did?), and another reason why Antoine can't howl freely out here and be like a real dog. I look at him and ask,"Which way did they go?" To which he points out, "Zey vent zat vay!" And we were off, with Antoine in the lead.

I know that something's up definitely when we're lead out into an opening cloaked by shadows. Dangerous shadows, but it does offer us some protection from the Destructix, because we all know that people don't listen in on the Destructix's private conversations and expect walk away alive.

But the matter of fact is, is that we have to tread carefuly because Lightning's ears are sensitive to the slightests sounds, frogpeople are walking GPS Systems (Thanks to the fact that frogs are able to detect vibrations in the ground, he'll be able to know where we are directly, and if we're running, walking, or standing still), and a hawk's eyes are superb at seeing things from afar.

"Antoinesan," I whisper. "Predator Hawkchan is basically staring within our same vicinity, and Flyingchan can see all the way around his head without turning it, we need to quietly get out of Predatorchan's viewpoint and march closely together." "Oui." Antoine agrees, shaking his head.

"But which way do we go?" I ask him. We need to get as close to the edge as possible without being spotted, and wind up to the farthest edge where the Destructix lay. Antoine eventually leads us to the far right, taking me by the hand, and as quietly as possible, we make our way towards the Destructix.

I trust Antoine because his eyes are better in the dark than mine, but why is it when you need to be quiet you always make the most noise? I've fallen twice already and I feel like I'm being followed by a volcano with Antoine's breathing. If there was any hope of not being caught by the Destructix, it's gone now. But wait, we catch a break-we can hear the Destructix crying; Flying is howling tears, and I don't blame him, and it covers our tracks.

"Now eez our chahnze, Leiang," Antoine whispers with urgency. "Let ooz movez clozair." I take this with a, "Hai." We duck behind some bushes, listening intently to their conversation.

"When he was a tadpole, I cradled him, and when I first looked into his eyes, he was my shining starlight that made me want to protect all my children, and now he's turned against me. I've already buried one of his brothers before the others were born, I don't want to bury another." Flying sobbed. "Well, I threw a pregnant lady into a window for mine." Lightning sniffles. "You what?" Predator asks hatefully. "Long story." Lightning explains.

"I can't do it," Flying sobs loudly. "I just can't." "Can't vhat?" Antoine whispers to me. I smack him lightly then continue to listen in, a dark realization dawning on me.

 _Could you kill your own child?_ I don't think I could, and I don't like the thoughts swarming in my mind of Lightning holding a lifeless Cookie in his arms, his son's eyes staring expressionlessly at his father as he cries. Or Sonic, I can only imagine him marching beside Fast's casket, a solemn look glued onto his face forever. I hate these thoughts because it could happen to anyone. It's just that it's... a cold, bitter, sad truth.

"We need Simian!" I overhear Flying wail. "But he's dead," Lightning points out. "So it's just us now." Flying sighs and places his head in his hands and says, "It's just that he would know what to do." "But you know the prophecy," Predator inputs, eyeing them all. "Simian has always said to stay out of Fate's way, and we need to honor that."

"But what are we-" "Shush Lightning," Flying hushes towards the lynx. "We'll figure things out tomorrow when we have more heads to help us." "But we are the Destructix," Lightning argues back. "We are not the team that "wings it." We're the team who's chess pieces are set in order for our next move, and that's how we have always came out on top." "But are you ready for surprises when they happen?" Flying spits. "Always." the ninja smiled cockily.

"So what," Predator adds. "That's why we have lost a few fights to pityass teams like the Freedom Fighters. We can't map out every move, and we can't see every mistake that will be made. As an assassin, I should know, I've messed up on a few missions planning ahead." "How?" Lightning asks.

"When you fall from the ceiling in front of a whole party of guests after seducing your female assignment and slipping poison from your mouth to hers and everybody knows that you aren't on the list of anybody they know, you'll know." Predator answers. "But still, I don't think it's a good idea to go into a situation blind." Lightning said, shaking his head and crossing his arms.

"We should focus more on what we're gonna do with Silver once we capture him-" "If we capture him Flying." Predator corrects. "This is what I'm meaning by we need to plan ahead," Lightning included. "Because we don't even know what we're going to do with the man once we get him, or if he's even going to be alive when we're finished."

"Right," Flying explains. "We need to know what we're going to do with him once we get him, but this is a two way path, there is no third option, unless we all like the idea of Silver running amuck and trying to kill us all. We don't need to know how we're going to capture or kill him, we just need to know what we're going to do with him afterwards."

And then Antoine and I realize that Flying is correct, there is only two options, and we can't leave the crossroads yet. But what about his goons? They'll either continue to fight us in Silver's name, or disband and hide, and we'll see what happens then when we get there, but how? I don't know, and I shake at the thought. I just hope that by the end of the day, we've done everything correctly with few loose ends.

 **The Human Torch Belongs to his respective comic, and I have respect for all Japanese and French people out there in the world. I just wanted to seeif I could properly implement a Japanese accent, and well, give Monkey Khan more of an in depth character than the guy in love with Sally and wields a magic staff. I don't mean to mock anybody if it is taken into offense. Thank you for understanding.**


	7. The Next Move

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Important Note: This chapter will be relatively short, but the next set of chapters will be longer due to the plot thickening and the climax deepening, but not all of them. Thank you.**

 **Chapter 7: The Next Move**

Once more we gather inside a motel room and surround a map, this time with four more "x"s on it, and ramble amongst ourselves of what we were going to do next, with the Destructix, once more, sitting at the head like royalty, but you could see it in their eyes that they were recovering for the hardships from last night. Antoine and I were recovering from a lack of sleep, making it hard to concentrate, but I was able to nab a spot for us close to the map, but we would have to put up with Shadow and Nack.

I don't have anything against the two, it's just the way they carry themselves they seem like dangerous men. According to Antoine, they were a couple of badasses who carried their gun on their sleeve and shot all those who looked at them the wrong way. They had to keep a tough demeanor because one was a bounty hunter, and the other worked for the CIA, explaining their standoffish stances and hardened faces, and neither were joys to be around.

Antoine also said that Nack was a traitor to the Freedom Fighters and everyone around them, even the villains, and that his head was wanted on a stake by all, until Sonic changed him, but still, tensions are high when he's in the room.

Shadow was not on any good terms with Antoine, given that his ex-girlfriend, Shadow himself, and Espio took advantage of him (He spoke no English at the time and was so in love with Sonia he could not see anything like that happening), and since he works for the government, being knocked over by the wind easily would not help him with his job, plus he was holding this big grudge for a murdered girl named Maria. I don't like what he did to Antoine, but I can see why one would be so aggressive when their best friend was wrongly killed trying to save you.

I moved Antoine closer to Nack, and he grabs my wrist, his grip hardening like molten iron against my fur, persperation swapping between us, his eyes darting from the map to Shadow, who is just standing there with his arms cross, awaiting the verdict. I look at him and tell him that I'm here and he'll be alright.

I hadn't realized what had changed days ago in France when Shadow was marching around the boat threatening people to now. Antoine had seemed so cool around Shadow, like he was at a loss of who Shadow was and why he was like that, and now he's cowering like Shadow has a gun in his hand and he's ready to pull the trigger. I'll relay this back out to him afterwards because I know that he's only going to listen halfway to what everybody else has to say, but he's going to be more worried about Shadow.

Everyone settles down when Lightning raps on the nightstand, sparking all of our flares of attention. Flying clears his throat and starts, "My brothers and I have spoken with each other, and we have decided to consult all of you as to what we do next."

"Give up." Skylar coughed with a snicker. The three Destructix, and all those who heard, including me, glare him down. Nack pushes him foward and goes, "Here, tell us how your master plan will work, and how we will manage with Silver on the loose. And if we encounter Silver, what will we do then?" Skylar looks at us all and gets cold feet. "Oh...uh..." he sputters out. "Thought so." the father tells his speechless son as he pulls the boy back into place.

"Any more ideas?" Flying asked. "We need to take down Rock immediately." Jet suggested. "Correct," Lightning agreed. "He's the biggest ringleader they have. Without him, they're lost." "But there is always another who will take his place." Predator added. "Who," Sonic challenged. "Silver himself?"

"No," Predator answered. "He's the leader, Rock is second in command. Even if we do take him out, behind him is another just waiting to take his place, and behind that one is another one that will take his place, and so on and so forth." "Zo, ve'll be taken down trois people?" Antoine asked. "Four people." Predator corrected. "Uh, why four?" Bean asked.

"Because," Argon answered. "The farther down the line you go, the less skilled the next commander will be. Kind of like in the military where the sergeant is above the soldiers, but the commander is above him, and there is someone above him, and above him, and it just keeps going and going." "And eef ve remov-ed zem, zey vill 'ave to be relying on zomebody 'oo 'az abzoloutely no idea vhat ze 'ell zey are doing!" Antoine bounds out.

"But who are these other people that fall behind Rock in their little pecking order?" Nack asked. Nobody answered him, with Lightning slamming his hands over Flying and Predator's mouth, shushing them, his face looking like Nack had sent him a petty insult than given an idea. Nack had to have his words repeated through the mouth of Sonic before it would even take with Lightning.

Lightning makes it very clear that he's he still sour at Nack. When Nack suggests something, he doesn't even take it into consideration unless someone else more favorable in his eyes repeats it. Even then, he still takes Nack's words with a grain of salt, no matter how intelligible, or wise it may seem. Poor Nack, I wonder why he did what he did to get on Lightning's bad side.

At least he's not Eggman, whose words are not taken for shit everytime he opens up his mouth. He's a trickster just waiting to betray again, so we have no reason to trust him, no matter what Sonic, or Jet, or his own mother says.

"I have an idea who, and I know three men in the room who are not gonna like the next words I say." Shadow includes. "Just say thier names already." Sonic barks, emotion trickling out of his mouth. You can see the tears forming at the bottoms of his eyes, but he closes them and jerks his head away, a few tears escaping and falling to the floor. Shadow stared on at him, his face dropping a little. Not enough to say that he's engulfed in sadness, but enough to say that that you can tell that there is remorse in his eyes.

"So, how are we going to pull this off?" I ask. "Well," Vector starts, looking me dead in the eye like I'm a criminal. "Father and son cannot be together when we do this in case one of them decide to become a martyr for Silver." "But what if there is no other option?" Sonic asked, dying inside. "To kill them or to fight them?" Vector asked. "Both." Sonic answered quietly.

"Then you'll have to be brave enough to pull the trigger." Vector sighed, blinking as he said those words. "Woah, woah, woah," Nack shouted into the crowd, turning our heads to him. "You're askin' a bunch of fathers to kill their own child. Goddess knows that we've worked hard to get them, and it's easier said than done with what you're saying Vector. We just can't pull the trigger on our own children, it's impossible."

Flying slams his hands on the table and gnashes, "What do you know about loss? All you ever do is take." "I know more than what you think." Nack answerd back solemnly. "Really," Flying berratted. "Before my other four children were born, I had another after Fredrick. He was kidnapped and locked in a freezer for months on end. He was stabbed, shot, then died slowly of dehydration and hypothermia, so what do you know about loss."

Nack looked at him with dull eyes, recalling a horrid memory, and sighed, "Before Skylar was born, there were seven others before him, all stillborns. Every baby died either in the womb, or made it out into the world to die minutes later in my arms. My wife's body was too weak to have children, and then she became pregnant again. I remember thinking, 'No! Not again! This can't happen again!' And 8 months later, Skylar was born premature. They didn't expect him to live long because he had the build of a 6 month premature baby, but he's here... with complications in his leg muscles."

"What a heartwrenching tale," Vector says hatefully. "But nobody cares!" Before anybody could react, Nack had pulled out his gun and shot Vector in the mouth."Vector!" Several people shout, others just stood there gasping, and Antoine, Charmy, me, and the three other members of the Destructix never move, with the Destructix having eyes like fire. Flying moves towards Nack, hugging him and whispering, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Nack returns with an, "I didn't know about your son. I'm sorry too." Both men were crying, as well as Sonic, and Antoine was sniffling beside me.

It was tomorrow before the meeting had resumed, with Vector being wheelchaired in there with his mouth tied shut to let the bullet hole heal. We had lost him several times last night, and if not for the grace of Lightning, he would have been dead, but at least he'll keep his mouth shut. Nack and Skylar were late, with both looking lifeless as they shuffled into the room.

Nack shot an evil look at Vector, pulling out his gun as a warning, and keeping in his hands on it at all times and he lingered over in a dark corner of the room. I try not to look at his bloodshot, tired eyes, nor at his son as he treads close to his father's feet. Vector had a look crossed with being accomplished and angry, as if he was happy that he put down Nack's son, but mad because he reacted.

We finish where we left off with a hasty, "Handicap or mortally wound them and bring them back to their fathers for a nice little talk, but I want to see Rock's corpse immediately." Flying was in no mood to play games.


	8. What Did We Just Do

_**I DO NOT own any characters but the OCs and the plot. There are not many OCs if you are wondering.**_

 _ **Important Note: Long chapter.**_

 **Chapter 8: What Did We Just Do**

"Come here my little ladybugs!" Sonic shouts happily to his daughters as he play fought with them. Both his daughters bowled him over, shouting cheerfully as their father did the same.

Over to my right Valiance, Predator Hawk, and Speedy are talking as Nikai chases down Scar angrily as the latter runs off with Nikai's priceless crown, sword, and his clothes (Nikai had said he'd take a bath eariler, and Scar is one of these people who thinks it's funny to play idiotic pranks on people).

"Why do you call him mom?" Predator asked the creation. "He just looks more maternal, Dad." Valiance answered. Speedy only blandly replies, "Gee thanks."

Vector had started to make a recovery in the week and a half that had went by, but he's made a lot of enemies with what he said about Skylar. I tried to comfort Nack about it, but he just lectured me on how this was bad he was losing his temper and making a horrible example for his son and how he'd like to smash Vector's face in and watch him, Nack, destroy half of his room in a fit of rage.

But what he says about Skylar's legs is true. Sometime he can't walk and needs his father's help from getting from one place to another, as a couple of days ago, he fell from his chair in the middle of a diner and couldn't move his legs for a few days, and Scar had to be saved from being beat to death by both his own father and Nack for laughing at Skylar's misfortune, with Sonic refereeing the whole time.

Skylar can walk good, it's just that his legs have those moments where they refuse to cooperate sometimes, but he makes up for it by being able to hold his own in a fight and being a great tracker like Nack is. Plus he has a nasty grip from where his father takes him treasure hunting with him sometimes. And if you're wondering if Skylar has a mental problem, he doesn't. He's just a bit of a ditz. If he'd come out of that, he'd be a force to reckon with.

Past Sonic and his daughters is Antoine and Lightning chatting it up as they get a tan, in Australia, the place Silver has led us to next. We had encountered him a few times after planning our next move, but for these past few days, he's been relatively quiet, so we take advantage of this and have a day for ourselves.

Flying and Bean are behind me, playing a game of soccer, and speaking some other foreign language. Jet flies past me, trying to stop his son from being pulverized by Nikai (Who caught him and started to beat the living hell out of him as his father watched, not even attempting to stop the carnage).

Bark was feeling sick a few days ago, so he went off somewhere into the woods today, and we haven't seen him since, and Nack is sitting beside me, his son on my other side, leaning on me. His father snaps his fingers and the boy takes his weight off of my arm. Ya know, Nack's not so scary when ya get to know him, and he's a beautician of a place called, "Dastardly Cuts."

Beleive it or not, but someone as handsome as me used to have an afro when I was younger. My father had tried everything to tame the beast I call hair until he one day shaved me bald. It stopped the afro, but my hair came in all wavy like and lighter, and so, he shaved me again and again till my hair got it right to his liking. At least I'm not Antoine, he was bald for half of his life, and then his hair was longer than a girl's until he cut it off himself. And as an added bonus, he's a bottle blonde.

I showed the pictures of me when I was younger, and he only nods, "I am a beautician, I have seen worse. Seriously, you should see the sheep people that come into my store, spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R." Skylar then spells disaster. "I didn't say spell disaster you ninny!" Nack barks at him, making the young boy flinch.

I'd hate to be the one to get in between father and son yelling time, but this is ridiculous. Nack seems a bit hypocritical, one minute protecting his son, the next screaming at him and calling him names. Sure Skylar is a hair-pulling aggrivation, but he's just a kid, as were we at one time, and I guess I wouldn't be too happy with the idea of someone else disciplining my kid either, but geez, does it have to border abuse?

I get up and leave him, tempted to go speak to Antoine and Lightning, but I need a change of pace. I love Antoine and Lightning like my own flesh and blood, but I need to bond with someone else and make amends, after all, what could happen today?

I make my way to Bean and Flying Frog, who then takes the initiative to kick the soccerball right into the side of my face, flooring me. I black out for like a second, and then I look up at them, moaning, but they don't seem to hear me, they're too busy fighting.

"How could you? How could you?" I groggily hear Bean shout. "Get rid of a nuisance," Flying argues back. "You should be going, 'Why thank you Flying.'" "For what," Bean spats. "Hurting somebody?" Then Bean, who rips the soccerball out of Flying's hands, unknowingly hits me hard in the nose with it, yelling, "What is wrong with you?"

I don't know what happens next, all I know is- Oh my shit! I leave Antoine alone for one second and he's being tossed across the field like a softball! His body dissappears into the trees somewhere, Lightning slamming side first into a big oak tree and falling into a briar patch. Ouch. "Bark!" Bean waves towards the enraged polar bear. "Stop it! What's ammater with you?"

He too goes flying into the woods. I start hearing people scream out and grunt. "Traitor!" Sonic yells. "I'll fucking end this!" Shadow screams out, then I hear, _Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!_ **"No!"** Beans yells out loudly. He runs right past me, limping as he does, and I wonder why I'm just lying here like a goof instead of doing something.

I touch my face and look at my hand, blood is all over it, but that doesn't matter. The rampaging Bark is what matters now.

"The end is already in place!" I hear a familiar, maniacle voice laugh. Silver! I shoot half my body up, making my head spin a little, and look at him. The only words applicable in describing him would be Insane Scourge the Hedgehog (I've only met him once, when he kicked me in the balls and robbed me blind, laughing as his girlfriend, some foxgirl named Fiona, took a dry razor to my tailfur, rendering it bald and with a shaving rash for days).

"Silver," Jet called out. "You don't have to do this!" "You're too late!" Silver responded, taking a psychic wave and knocking Jet into the ground, the dirt burying him. "Jet!" Nack and Sonic call out. They grab Scar as he races foward, crying, "Father!"

"What? Did nobody ever tell you the bedtime story on how I, the Iblis Trigger, will make all the extremists go mad and destroy everything in their path?" Silver smiled. While he's talking, I slowly stand up, not taking my eyes off of him, and slowly start walking towards him, angry.

"I'll kill you!" Shadow yells, firing off another set of bullets. Silver renders them harmless with his telekinesis and shoots them back at several of us. I hear one whistle past me as it pulls the skin off my right ear. Then another hail of Hell comes firing towards us all and Silver rips up half the damn forest by it's roots and starts chucking it at us.

Charmy's taken out, Sonic's taken out, and Bean had a branch lodged in his eye socket from the wooden brigade. I would barricade myself if the damn trees weren't being lifted again to try to smash us. I dart foward as the tree comes down on me and push Eggman aside, running ahead. Then I get another muscle spasm, and Sonic has already helped Argon, who's pinned under a tree, get back up in time to leap away.

Bean looks up, taking out the branch from his eye socket and lets out a wail. But it's not the forlorn cry of someone who has experienced a loss, it's a warcry. Then a wave of orange energy shoots up from his palms as he slams them foward, and another muscle spasm hits and Sonic and Argon are beside me.

Bean cleared the whole place of everything in sight, even knocking Silver to the ground, but Bark still stood there, a foot of ash all over his body, and he looked really, really angry.

I know that whatever he does next, I will not survive, and neither will Antoine if he's waking up now. Antoine and I have no powers, so we're basically sitting in the back seat when it comes to fights like these.

When people have powers, their bodies adapt to make them be able to handle their power. Bean's joints are probably equipped to handle the backlash and wind from the explosions he's making, making him likely to hit harder and not be thrown around as easy, and he's not going to disintegrate into nothing if he's caught in one, meaning that his skin is like a suit of armor. He may still be able to get hurt, but not like everyone here who's dead if they're caught in an explosion.

Like Sonic (I don't really know anymore, and I should ask him sometime soon), who's joints are equipped for running and not being killed by inertia, but if he breaks a bone, he's screwed, as their bones break easily, but they breathe deeply, almost like a sigh, but deeper, all. The. Time. And it makes them last longer in a fight, if they're not caught. It's a super weak power that's classified as a "Front Line Ability."

Guys like me are dead where we stand, but Bark, he takes the cake. He's unstoppable if I've read correctly about extremists. Nobody knows how many there are, or why they come in during a crisis, but you can be sure that destruction follows them wherever they go. But note that extremist means that their powers are taken to the extreme, they're the top dog of us all. If Lightning were to electrocute me, there's a small chance I might survive, maybe Bark, but truly, none of us are, and I know the hell to come.

The extremists are harbringers of big change according to folklore, as they're only born when necessary. Meaning, Bark is not going to be easy, and will be nigh unstoppable. I've also read that they can't control their powers no matter their age because their power is always building up, getting stronger, and never stops growing, but Bark is in pain constantly.

Powers take a physical toll on their owners from comas to combustion, to your muscles just dropping from from your body, but Bark's is like he's being crunched under 12 ton trucks all day, everyday. Also, if an extremist is in an enraged, the change is happening, and it's happening right before us, and we can't stop it? But what does _this_ mean?

A string of lightning shoots by me, sizzling the air. It's intended target was Bark, but the funny thing is, is that electricity never does what you want it to do unless it's draining you to the point you pass out, or combust, whichever takes you last, instead, it hits Antoine, who is now running out of the forest, screaming, sword in hand, and knocks him cold to the ground.

I start making a beeline towards Lightning, Bark charging hot, the ground thundering with each footstep he takes, desperate people intervening, but being knocked off their feet by Silver.

Despite all our confrontations, I've never actually seen him throw a punch. All he does is try to kill us with his telekinesis, but not with fists. Then again, my father always told me to never back myself into a corner I know I can't get out of. Never really heeded my father's advice to begin with, but a fistfight against 19 is a guaranteed loss, unless your Bark.

Predator is plunged into me, making us bounce and roll towards Lightning, who has no qualms about stepping on Predator Hawk's back, who is laying on top of me (and my does he weigh much), and throwing a ninja spear at Silver, who promptly snaps the weapon in two, ruining it for good.

 _I really wish I had my Atom Bat_ I think as I peel myself away from Predator, who takes to the air, but soon, we are both grabbed by our tails and swung like bats into the other characters, save Bean, who literally takes his arm off his body and throws it at Bark, making it explode like a firecracker in his face, causing him to drop us. When I look up, Bean is standing in front of us, his arm grown back.

He is "looking" at us blankly, then looks us, only to be swatted away with th sweep of Bark's ginormous hand, and then hit with a double dosage of Silver's powers.

At this point in the game, I'm battered, tired, blood is all over me from myself and everyone else around me, and I'm basically just in the way. Hell, Eggman has done more than me, hopping on top of Silver's back as he floats gently to the ground, Jet waving towards the mad hedgehog like an airline crew directing a plane to land, ripping Silver's head back and forth before the hedgehog telekinetically throws the man behind him into the starlight until, Muscle Spasm, and now he's safe in the arms of Sonic, but this action threw the crazed ex-hero off enough for Nack to take his turn.

"By the power of the Master Emerald, I command you to stop!" he called out. Silver only stops briefly to laugh, and I pick up the largest stick I could find and hit him across the back of the head with it, knocking him to the prickly ground before beating his brains out. He lays there like a bloody heap, and I smile and wipe away the sweat, until Jet stands there looking at Silver, then at me, screaming, "You killed him," then yelling, "You killed him!" He lunges at me and pushes me over, punching my numb nose, making a bone crack inside it.

Did you think the story was over yet? Yeah right! Silver then lifts his head up and murmurs, "Iblis! Help me!" And then he's engulfed in flames. Wait! He's transforming! Antoine, whose clothes are tore, his only eye is blackened, his arm is snapped, his hair is charred, blood is dripping from his mouth, bathed in sweat, and hunched over, looks like he's had enough even though he hadn't really fought to begin with.

He's managed to catch up, only to be surprised (We all are) as Silver grows into a gigantic, purplish-red pterodactyle like creature with 4 arms spanning across the horizon, draped in webbing, with sharp teeth illuminated, literally, into a dark, ominous, light, his hand engravings burned profusely across his body, the crazy glint giving way into a golden light, with Bark marching around him, prepared to attack all those who interfere.

"Silver?" Jet said to himself. Silver's head perked up, his monsterous form looking us all dead in our faces. Silver let out a roar, knocking just about everyone over in front of him, before Jet took his stand. We all watched him slowly get up and undress himself, the cube-thingy he has with him at all times, being brandished like a weapon.

"Silver," Jet says, sounding as if he was trying to hold back tears, the dragon-like being bowing his head before the green hawk. "Silver, it's okay now. It's okay." Silver purrs at him, nuzzling him. The cube is glowing now as Jet holds it close to his core.

As Silver begins to settle down, Bark begins to look less feral and frightening, returning to the Bark we all knew. He still looked sick, but at least he looked alright, and Silver looked like he was going to return back to the form of a hedgehog. Jet called his son up there, and they both rubbed Silver, calming him, soothing him, making him peaceful enough to the point Bark looked normal, meaning Silver was going to give up, until Vector and Charmy took action.

They leaped foward, tazing Bark, enraging both he, Silver, and everyone else around them, making the Iblis Silver yowl and toss his head around, knocking Jet and Scar in different directions, the Cube dissappearing out of sight, causing Silver to then open up a Warp Ring and fly through it, it closing up on them. Bark's eyes gleamed with ferocity, and then he took off, in a very detectable path (He's knocking over trees and forming a road as he runs. How could you not miss him?).

Charmy and Vector look up, fuming with anger as Jet and Scar collide into them, angry, sharing the expression of everyone else around them, ready to spit fire until they realize they're missing something, and thus begins a frantic search to find it.

I search with Antoine and Lightning, but I'm so angry I can barely concentrate because no damn job can be done without Idiot 1 and Idiot 2 interfering and causing more problems than there has to be! It's almost like Vector and Charmy don't want us to capture Silver.

Now we have to follow Silver through a damn portal to Lotus Goddess knows where and deal with him there. If there truly are denizens of other dimensions, how in the hell are we suppossed to deal with them? I mean, we got aliens, but what if it's an environment they cannot survive?

The search ends quickly, with Vector finding it and handing it back to Jet. "Now what?" "We follow them." I say. Everyone looks at me, with Eggman stepping foward, proposing, "With what?" "My dick," I bark at him. "We'll find something," I turn to Lightning. "Got any ideas?" He nods at me, proudly exclaiming, "Loads of them."

He and the Destructix smile, making us all cringe, and pulls several rings off of their hands. "Are those-" Jessica gasped. "Warp Rings?" Predator finished for her. "How did you-" Vector questioned in awe. "We make loads of these things." Lightning admitted. "Uh, isn't that illegal?" Sonic asked, the same question I bet everyone here was thinking.

"Well duh," Predator says matter of factly, as if this is something normal, everyday people do. "Why do you think the FBI want us for manufacturing illegal weapons?" "But eet eez not a veapon?" Antoine asks. "Of course it is," Flying sings with glee. "You stand on one side, your friend on the other, hold somebody between the two worlds, and then slam the portal shut, killing them! Oh it was fun!"

"But I thought you were fixed?" Nack asks, his eyebrows raised. "Come now," Flying daunts on him. "You know I don't believe in visectemies." "But that wasn't what I was asking." Nack replies to him, his face dropping. "Of course it was!" Flying retorted. "No it wasn't." Nack argued. "You asked if I was fixed, and I told you don't believe in visectimies."

"I mean your damn mind! Do you have your damn mind?"

"Of course I do, it's just complicated."

"Everything with you is complicated."

"Everything is complicated when you ask the wrong questions."

"Ugh, never mind."

"You should never your mind, for the never will happen."

"-_-"

Okay...awkward. First I learn that Lightning has been illegally manufacturing Warp Rings behind my back without letting me in on it, and now we're talking about visectimies and Flying's insanity. Could this day get any wierder?

 **Sorry about the visectimy joke guys. I know it was a little inappropriate for this story, but the next chapters won't be as dirty. Promise.**


	9. Teasing the Falcon

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **As stated before, long chapter with a lot of action, and a bit of drama with tons of shockers. Enjoy, and thanks for the reviews.**

 **Chapter 9: Teasing the Falcon**

Of course it can! Lightning pulls out a warp ring from his finger, twirls it in the air like he always does (He's left handed, so a vast majority of them are ingrained in his wedding band), and it was just about to open until Argon grabs it and shrinks it back into a normal looking ring.

"Wait," he says at last after a long stare down between us all. "If we leave now, there is no turning back. Let's finish things up with Rock first." Everybody gives thought on it for a moment.

"Good dot." Antoine announces. "Uh Antoine," Sonic interjects. "That's point." "Oh." is Antoine's only reply. Suddenly, we're all slammed into the dirt as the Southern Hemisphere rocks us violently, the ground splitting before us, forming a bridge made out of a deadly gap into an endless crevace. This startles me.

Where I've lived in Japan so long, I've seen it all; tsunamis that have brushed away cities like they were simple flies, tropical monsoons that blow on for months on end, cyclones that have taken many of my houses, hurricanes that one time took my workplace with me in it, and earthquakes that have formed mountains out of roadways and ripped houses into the caverned abyss below, so this should be of no surprise to me, or Nack, who's staring on as if he's just seen the most impossible thing ever to happen in his entire life.

Earthquakes happen in Australia, maybe not at the magnitude Japan recieves, but they happen, and you usually know when they happen, but not like this. This is something out of a horror movie. Seriously, what the hell?

Skylar lets out a laugh. Nack slaps him in the back of the head and growls, "The world is literally crumbling around us and you find this funny?" Skylar hastily shakes his head no. I don't know why Skylar laughed, but my goodness, pray he never does that out in Japan after something devastating. Before the police can reprimand the suspects, Skylar would look like shark chow if he laughs like that in Japan.

"Why did you laugh?" Nikai asks, pushing matters into the red zone as he stands close enough to be considered intimidating to the boy. Skylar barks back, "Is it any of your damn business?" "The world's bursting from it's fucking seams. Damn right it is!" Nikai lashes. "Okay son, that's enough." Speedy says calmly. Nack grabs Skylar and whips him towards his body, both boys glaring at each other, the men shaking thier head in embarassment.

"Okay, what now?" I ask. "We find my son." Sonic answers, blinking. He pricks his ears up and in Japanese, screams to me, _"You touch him and I'll make sure you never walk again." "Empty threats do not bother me."_ I reply in Japanese. _"I'm being serious,"_ he tells me. _"Touch him and we'll have problems." "We already do you dumb fuck! Or is your lousy brain slacking on you?"_ I bite _._

 _"All right already,"_ Lightning's voice steps in. _"Let's go somewhere quiet and resolve your differences before they kill us all. Flyingsama, come on." "Of course Lightningviche, I shall."_ the frog answers. _"He knows Japanese!"_ I say in disbelief. _"And Spanish, and French, and Ukranian, and German, and Chinese, and Polish and Catalan and English."_ Flying nods with a smile. _"Is that even possible?"_ I ask him. _"If you're a polygot like us."_ Sonic grins, placing his arm around Flying's neck with a thumbs up. _"Don't forget Bean."_ Lightning adds.

I look at him, then at Antoine, who's fluent in Japanese, but he doesn't know it all, based on the scrunching up of his face as he tries to figure out what we're saying. As far as English goes, Antoine doesn't know it because nobody taught him it but other foreigners who had no idea what the hell they were saying, but at least he's kept the accent, a sign of originality. My English sucks too, for a long and harrowing reason why, but at least I have my French.

 _"Surely we won't need him will we?"_ Flying asks as we walk towards a secluded spot. _"No,"_ Lightning answers. _"If things go right, we shouldn't."_ We're led into a deep forest, a quiet forest, a place where nobody could hear you scream if you were being axe-murdered.

"English or Japanese?" Lightning asks us. "Japanese," Sonic barks. "I want this bitch to know how I feel about a traitor like him." "Traitor," I yell at him. "You were the one who fucked her!" "So were you!" he argues back at me. "Okay," Lightning intervenes. "Spill it." We look at him. "Your problems." he says to us. In Japanese, we start to argue:

"You knew that I loved Sally with all my heart!" I gnash at Sonic. "Well so did I!" Sonic growls at me, baring his teeth. I bare mine and scream, "You were always in the way. I knew she was the one for me, and she asked to elope with me one night, until you strutted you damned ass in there and she was force to push me into the closet, and I watched the both of you make love."

Sonic looks taken back by this, insulted actually, from the curl of his eyebrows, to the sniveling of his muzzle, he looked more like he had smelled a nasty rat, perhaps himself.

"I didn't know you were in the closet!" Sonic says to me. "You probably did!" I yell at him. "Sally had been talking about engagement to me the entire time." Sonic explained. "Well, she kept me on the line with a promise that we would elope because you turned out to be an ass and she couldn't live without me," I whip out. "And she told me that you decided to leave her alone after telling her that she was a whore."

"Monkey," Flying tells me, looking me dead in the eyes. "She was." "How?" I demand. "Number 1, she cheated on me with you, and you with me. Number 2, we were lead on that we were going to walk her down the aisle. Number 3, she slept with Antoine after losing a bet with Bunnie." Sonic explained, his face still enraged, but almost sympathetic, like he was explaining a criminal past to an innocent child.

"But I thought she hated every fiber of Antoine's being." I spit. "Monkey, everybody does." Sonic replies. "Not I." I say. "You're the exception." Sonic tells. "Well, if you guys took the chance to know him instead of pawning him off and ditching him every chance you got, maybe you might find out that he's a decent person." I say, letting them know that Antoine is just as much a victim as his Precious Little Wifey.

"Monkey Khan, when we first met him, he wouldn't talk, and when he did, nobody could understand him. He was also this crazy jealous asshole who found every loophole he could find to throw me under a bus, but then again, I had no idea at the time that he was her fiance." Sonic explains calmly, but my temper was rising, and it had finally boiled out. "Fiance!" I steam.

Then Sonic explains to me, sighing, "Yes. I didn't know till after I returned from my honeymoon with Sally only for the French military to kindly escort me to their Federal Penetentiary, Bunnie only steps behind me, and stayed there for quite some time until things worked out. Then there was my damn sister who tossed him around like a baseball card, and that disgusts me, but back on the topic of Sally, we both know that she was toxic for us."

"Innocent on the outside, a demon on the inside." I agree, my temper venting off a little. "And I fear we may have to talk to her soon about Silver." Sonic then tells me, with this being of more relevance than our squabble for a girl. "Oh Goddess, I hope not." I gasp in aggrivation. Silver is insane, so she might still be a lenient little creampuff, right?

"We will," Flying inputted. "It's inevitable." "Well I can't be seen near her, I'll be put to death because I've committed crimes against the People of Acorn." Sonic spits out as if someone had just told him they had caught him cheating on a spelling test.

"But It's the Kingdom of the People of Acorn, not Speedway," I shouted out. "At least that's what I heard." "Well, you're wrong," Sonic said. "And you can thank the Destructix and Eggman for that."

"We stood back a little and put two and two together and figured it out, and Eggman's stunning revelation that he was hiding Sonic's mom the whole time for her personal safety only made it clear who Eggman really was as a person." Flying explains.

This is a lot to take in, I never knew that Sonic was actually a prince. I only said I was a prince to win over Sally's affection. In reality, I'm the son of a rival gangster (In Japan, the Khans own one half of Japan, the Byers (Lightning's family) the other).

"And I damned myself when I said 'I do.'" Sonic grumbled to himself, obviously embarassed and mad at himself.

"How?" I ask him.

"Because I'm the next true king of my kingdom, and Sally's family was just a fraud who needed to marry real royalty to not be found out, and when I married her, I just made the Acorn's dream come true." Sonic tells me.

Now **my** world is crumbling around **me.** All those casual hookups, all those nights scheming on how we were going to get away from Sonic, all those royal dinners, all those arguments I ever had with Sonic were all pointless. Like a couple of high school girls fighting over some dog who thinks he's some kind of a stud.

They all look at me defeatedly, Sonic looking at me, his face reading mine, and knowing that deep inside me, my heart was breaking, but really, it was shattering, but I couldn't help but feel that it was Sonic's fault.

"But how did she pull this off?" I ask.

There was no way you could go from commoner to princess overnight. Something didn't add up, and it was dangerous information.

"By putting the United States in zillions of dollars in debt with France." Sonic says, his face abash.

"What?" I almost fall to the ground.

"I know right." Sonic says, his face lit up with shock as if he had just freshly heard it himself.

"First she uses me for sex, then she breaks my heart, now she's a fake! Oh my Dragon Goddess, what have I done?" My hands are on my face, the tears really streaming down. "And you knew about this the whole time, didn't you," I accuse Sonic. "And Antoine too! I thought he was my friend!"

"Uh, nobody knew," Flying explained. "It kind of snuck up on us all."

"Well how did you find out?" I ask him.

"First off, it was the arranged marriage," Lightning explained. "France and America do not arrange marriages for their people. Then it was the brainwashed people in the school systems. I had Rouge the Bat do some investigating of the national museum, and she had told me that America had been under the rule of the Speedways since the begining of time, making them the rightful heirs of the throne. Next it was the superficiality, as if the Acorns were hiding something. Then when Eggman told the truth, unveiling the treaty that granted him the world in the first place, Sally and Antoine looked more like several rugs were ripped out from underneath them. Eggman's guilt and lonliness is what saved us all. No, we don't like him for all the damage he caused, but we do feel sympathy for him because he was an outcast from the humans. They seem to think that it's okay to throw their unwanted children out into the wild, praying that people like us will eat them, making more Eggmen."

"But this doesn't change anything between me and Sonic," I tell him, ripping Lightning's proof to hell. "I loved her, and I couldn't contend with _him_."

"Nobody could," Sonic explained. "It's normal for teenagers to have several relationships during their growth, but it's not normal to be lead on like animals, and that's how we're percieving each other, like animals, but we're not really animals no more. We have morals and opposable thumbs, and we don't have to eat each other anymore, and that means, we don't have to kill each other over a mate anymore."

I take Sonic's word into consideration and nod at him. "You're right," I tell him. "We weren't done right by Sally, and we can't go into the past and fix that. While we still have animal bodies, we're not animals, so we shouldn't have acted the way we have."

Despite this, I still feel like something's missing, and my heart is pounding to find out what.

Still, even with this dramatic breakdown, they tell us to hit each other in the face as hard as we can without retaliation, as to get the final bits of rage out of our systems. This has what it has always been in the Destructix- if two people were argueing to the point it's escalating to violence, both parties would be forced to strip naked, patted down _everywhere_ for weapons, and were sent out front to fight, with someone mediating.

The fights were usually to the blood, meaning, the one who has lost the most blood, or has willingly forfeit, loses the fight, and both parties would have a 2 day grace period to apologize to one another.

It was a great way to melt off resentment and clear up all the problems between each other, and it usually worked. But out here, I doubt that Sonic and I are going to strip to our feet and have a full on onslaught of each other. So we hit each other as hard as we could, bloodying our knuckles, and then Lightning looks at us, and in English, speaks, "Now, do we all feel better?"

I don't know about Sonic, but I kinda do. I still feel a bit edgy around him, but yeah, I do feel better. I still wanna hang around here though so that way the others don't see me crying, but I still feel like I need to be the bigger man, so I hug Sonic and go, "I'm sorry." Sonic pats my back and repeats my words.

We're both crying like little kids because we know that we were duped by the same girl. Sonic rubs my arms and says, "So, friends?" I stare at him for a moment and nod my head, repeating, "Friends."

Lightning and Flying cheer loudly and hand us a few leaves to blow our noses on. I dry my eyes with my new kimono. Its black and white, with the Yin and Yang symbol prominent on the back. I wear my religion symbol as a necklace around my neck, as well as my Charm of Good Fortune. I'll give it to Antoine because he could use the luck.

Then we start our treck back, and as we walk, I ask Sonic a question I'm dying to hear an answer to, "Do you still have your speed?" "No," Sonic answers me with a smile. "I gave it up a long time ago to save my daughter. Now I'm a Chronokinetic."

Chronkinetics can control time, but how potent is his abilities? Was his forgiveness even real, or did he manipulate it like the bastard he is? Now I don't trust him because he could've called me anything, done anything to me, and washed it away with his own abilities, and I would have been none the wiser, until now. I really do hate him. I just wish he'd die.

Later, we're all arguing again...over finding several of the brood's renegade sons.

"But how are we to find your Warlord Son?" Speedy spits. "I don't know." Flying answers, the pressure of guilt and grief crushing him in his place. "Today is Lake's birthday," Speedy ascends, using Lake, Lightning's youngest son, as leverage. "Do you want to let Lake know that you're a failure as a father Lightning?"

Lightning shriveled in his place, his eyes condencing, his ears melting downwards, his muzzle turning into the face of grief. "It wasn't his fault," Predator interjects. "Shadow and I both trained Silver to do this sort of thing. It's our fault, we shall bear the blame."

"Good work Predator and Shadow," Speedy snarks. "You've just created a monster." Predator smiled and positioned himself in front of the other bird's face, saying, "And this is why when we were younger, **nobody could stand you!"**

"Uh, why did you do it though?" I asked. "Because Silver wanted to become a super cool assassin and I was the only one who could teach him." Predator sighed. "But that doesn't explain why Shadow was there." I question further. "To keep Tippey in order." Predator explained. Tippey? Who's Tippey? We're about to find out as Flying loses it.

"You taught my baby brother to be an assassin," he shouts, literally ripping at his hair. "What's wrong with you?" "Uh, I had no idea what would become of Silver, and I figured that it's be better if Silver wasn't as helpless as a hapless infant on the battlefield." Predator spat. Then they start to argue, with Lightning just observing like a helpless rock.

This creates a domino effect of wailing fathers unable to get ahold of themselves. When we started this plan, our mission was to purposly seek out trouble, but trouble has found us instead, and I'm not saying that because my ears are ringing from all the crying to the point I can't hear what Antoine, the only one not having a mental breakdown, is saying.

I'm saying that because, coincidence, coincidence, Fast, Cookie, Fredrick, and Rock stand boldly in front of us, like a weevil to bread, declaring that it was their home and they're there to stay, only the bastards in front of us are more cockier than a weevil.

"Boys," Nack says in a scolding manner. "And Rock, surrender yourselves now and make this easier on us. If not, we'll make this harder on you." Rock laughs, his hands crossed. "You'll not intimidate us any longer." Cookie stated fiercely. "Intimidate you," Lighting bolted out, outraged at the accusation. "All I ever did was love you."

"Love me," Cookie spat out. "All you ever did was send me away and beat me." "Beat you!" Lightning cried out, his hand over his mouth, his ears flattened hard against his head. Now I will say this, the Destructix are a bit harsh on their children when it came down to discipline, but they did that to keep their children from straying into the wrong hands like they did a long time ago.

Plus Cookie, Lightning's firstborn son, was to become a samurai under the conditions of Lightning's omiai, Maybelle, who came from a long history of samurai, like me, so who better to send him to than me, a fellow samurai, after the basic training had been complete.

It has happened for generations, with a little modernization; maybe children weren't being jerked from their mothers at age 3 and sent across the country to train, and now there are samurai women, and we no longer wear body armor, but the Secrets of the Samurai cannot be performed in front of a ninja, just like the Secrets of the Ninja cannot be seen by samurai eyes, but after the Conquering Storm incident, Lake was not to be touched by a dojo for ninjitsu, and his father would not teach him until he had cleansed himself from the sins of his Clan (which were numerous).

Either way, I kept Cookie from the time he was 7 years old, until he had mastered his skills and was ready to graduate, when he maybe reached 26, 27ish, so I'm fighting the moster I created. Oh joy, can't wait.

"And I'm upset because my sister was born first, not me." complained Fast. Pathetic. Crying over something that cannot be helped. Wow, he needs to suck it up! Everybody here has been put through hell and back just to make it to the next time they take a piss and he wants to whine about how he wasn't the firstborn. It could've been a lot worse for him, he could've never had known his mother at all, like me (My mother died in childbirth), and he could've grew up in poverty, or had abusive parents like some of the people I know.

"And I want," Fredrick said, trying to think of what he wanted. "And I want, and I want- I don't know what I want." What the hell is a villain without a purpose? Sometimes evil does not have a reason why, but this scenario is different, as I can promise all of you that I'm certain Fredrick didn't sign up because the dark side had cookies and neon lights.

"And vhat doez Rock dezire?" Antoine asks in a taunting voice. "To make a new world." Rock explains. "Oh my Goddess, how cliche," Sonic bursts, rocking Rock off his feet. "Silver was a fucking pebble in everyone's damn shoe to begin with. His efforts to find the "Iblis Trigger" impeded everything we worked for, landed us in more shit than we could handle, and I was ready to cut his accusing fingers off and sever his whole muzzle from his body." Sonic growled, his nostrils flaring.

"Why?" Rock asked. "When someone screams "It's the Iblis Trigger" as loud as they can in your ear, or in your friends' ears, and then start throwing things at you, it **will** get old after awhile." "But he wants an abso-" "By destroying the world." Sonic cuts him off. "He's not-" "You just keep telling yourself that." Sonic waved.

"Why won't you-" "Because you've made our lives hell for no real reason whatsoever." Sonic sighed. "But you must-" "Listen kid," Nikai added, standing in place of Sonic. "This will get us nowhere but the apocolyspe, if it hasn't already started." Rock's face dropped, a look of defeat spreading across his face.

"Just give up," Jet says, reaching his hand out towards the pride-wounded falcon. "Silver was driven mad with Time Travel Sickness, he wasn't in his right mind to begin with. Absoloution is a faded memory, and maybe you can redeem yourself. We promise we're the good guys and we're fighting to save this world from turning into a nightmare. Just take my hand and trust us."

Rock looked crestfallen, as if he had found out that he was literally living in a nightmare instead of the Unicorn Fantasy Land Silver led them all to believe in. Now if Rock was a logical person, he would've taken Jet's hand and never let go, but he didn't.

"Then **I** will carry out his dream for him!" he declares, swatting away Jet's hand. He flies foward, knocking the green hawk a few feet, making the cube fall out of his hands, and into the grasp of Fredrick, until Charmy kicks the thing so hard a crack forms in it and Jet and Scar drop to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching themselves.

"Charmy you idiot!" Jet cried out as he stood up. "What!" cried out the bee, taking a good kick from Cookie, who brandished his sword and slashed at him, striking him good in the buttocks. Jet never finsihed his sentence as he and Scar were bounding across the battlefield, searching for the cube that hurts them so much. Almost makes me wonder why they keep such a thing around them at all times.

Antoine and I took on Fredrick, Flying joining in on the fight, but it's obvious he's trained his son to be a slippery little bastard because he keeps doing a gymnastics routine to escape from us every time we get close to him, until his father lashes out his tongue, grabs the boy by his ankle, and slams him onto the ground.

I blasted by a force of blue (they don't call him Fast for nothing), and he lingers over us, unveiling that he not only looks so much like Sally it was hard not to fantacize her standing over top of me, trying to kill me with her fists, and that he's a kid. Kids are going to be a lot more sympathetic, and given his age, I can coax him out of this, maybe.

"Do you really want to kill me?" I ask the young boy. He never blinks, never once shows emotion, as he delivers, "Yes." I wonder if Sally was a sociopath, because that's what Fast is looking like right now. I just up and easily dodge his next attacks, but helpless against his speed. Antoine stops that by severing his Achille's Tendons at once, making him drop to the ground screaming and holding his legs.

"Uh, arigato." I bow to Antoine, grateful that he save my life. "Do not be vandering far, mon ami, for eet eez much dangerouz for tu to fights alone." Is all that he says back to me. I nod at him, understanding clearly that we must stick together and- find ourselves almost getting sheeshkabobed by Predator and Rock, slicing through the air like fighter jets.

I pull out my sword, look at Antoine, and announce, "To Cookie. I must talk to him." "But, Lightning vishez to be dealing vith Cookie alone." Antoine sputters. I release my grip on my weapon and take this into consideration. Lightning is Cookie's father, and he is just my apprentice, a big difference between who's hand will matter more in the end. He is my responsibility yes, but I cannot undermine Lightning for he is the parent.

"'ow about ve vatch Fazt." Antoine suggests. It's a great idea, but I fear Sonic when he finds out, for their is nothing like a father's rage, and if Sally gives two damns about Fast, then there **will** be trouble. It's just Sonic is nowhere in sight and I wonder what he is doing and where he is at.

There is only 4 boys and like 12 of us, so he can't be that busy, but as I look to find Rock, I find out that he's a handful. I then hear, "Chaos Control!" I watch Shadow teleport from across the field to the air, then into midair, and finally give the necessary blow to the back of Rock's head, knicking him out of the air. Unfortunately, he creates a midair pile up, and Predator and Speedy ram into Shadow, and they all fall down.

Either way, the fight with Rock is over, and there goes Fast, crawling away with his arms. Antoine stands in front of him, and the boy looks up at him, making him jump back. If he saw the same face I did when Fast was trying to strangle me with his fists, that lifeless, voidless look, then he would definitely be mildly freaked out.

Antoine was never the bravest soul you'd come to for bravery most of the time, but he was wise enough to know when to keep his distance from the looney bin, but Antoine took pity on the criminally insane. I held no such beliefs. Flying is crazy, but people leave him to his own devices. People like him should never be left alone at all.

It not that I hate the idea of encountering a mentally ill person, or believe that they should all be locked away forever, it's just I don't like the idea of them wandering around alone, where something could set them off and make them violent, and the fact that their children will suffer too. As a hero of Japan, I've seen one too many cases where people with Flying Frog's mental insanity have pulled off mass murders, committed so many arsons you'd really have to be a lunatic to do, and have no idea that what they were doing was wrong, then fly off into a fit of rage and jump off a building because I couldn't reach them fast enough as their children either carry on thier legacy, kill themselves, spiral into the world of drugs and alcohol, or suffer the same mental illness of said parent.

Sally and Sonic's son is that envisionment. His eyes are blank, like they were glass statuesques, and I knew that if this continued any further, he would grow into the mental illness, his teenage years would be a disaster for him, and while he's doing little pittly fart stuff right now, it could escalate to robbery, or arson, or domestic violence, or worse. And if he has children and they inherit it, a lifetime of pain for them, as I see the pain Flying is in when he doesn't take his medicine. Screaming, kicking, crying, out of this world accussations. It's like watching a toddler throw a tantrum, only a toddler does it because they want something, Flying does it because the people in his head tell him that we're all out to get him and we all need to die to keep him safe.

Fast needs help, and he needs it before puberty kicks in bad (Everyone remembers when Flying turned 14, he turned Mercia to a bloodbath). I don't even try to make a mention of this to Antoine because he likes to think that I hate people with mental illnesses, or really anybody at all. I don't. I just don't feel safe around them.

When he points that finger at me, I tell him his dick is small and that shuts him up (it shuts every man up, extra points would be awarded if I was a woman, but men are afraid of each other because of our manly attributes being much smaller than that of our buddies, and that makes us insecure around each other).

Now I'm _**not**_ saying that every mentally ill person I meet is a danger to us all, but I have the kind of luck where I'll meet that someone who isn't that stable in their mind and has missed over a month's worth of medication and therapy, and then they'd kill me and I'd never see my kids again. And Fast is the kind of person that might kill someone; hell look who he's surrounded himself with, my ex-apprentice (Once I tell him that he has shamed me), Fredrick (who was never nice to begin with, so I saw this coming), Rock (who was so warped I'd rather stand beside pickpockets than him), and then there was Silver.

Jet says he is suffering from Time Travel Sickness, a disease that a time traveler gets from jumping back and forth through time so many times it makes them go insane. Which means that Silver will possess the skills and languages of old if he played his cards right, and if he remembers them, he will be very dangerous once he is back in Mobian form.

But I know that Antoine and I are going nowhere until the battle is finished, and our wait was for hours, so during that time, we meditated, our swords layed across our laps. Fast wasn't going nowhere, so why not? Our minds needed to be cleared to make our big decisions, so we ignore the battle, and when we open our eyes, it is time to gather around and survey our newly captured prisoners, until we watch Rock break free of Shadow and Argon's grasp by elbowing their faces as hard as he can and fly away.

"I will capture him again." Predator steps in. He gets ready for take off, but Argon stops him, saying, "Halt. He is already battered enough. Let him run, he has nowhere to go now." "But it defeats the purpose of the plan." Predator argues back. "But what does he have to go back to?" Argon asks. "An army." Predator answers. "With their insane leader who has taken off through a portal to the Parallel Dimension." Argon retorts.

Parallel Dimension? I've never been to another dimension before. I never knew they existed. On Stormtop Mountain, it was a secluded area where people lived as they did long ago. In other words, we are not caught up with the rest of Japan, and our temples and dojos were roosted in the woods and farther up the mountain. Until that crazy human girl and Eggman came, I had never set foot off of the mountain, which meant that the only dimension I had ever knew was that of the afterlife.

Of course Eggman captured me, tortured me, and left me trapped in a stasis pod where I was saved by Sally and Antoine. Afterwards, I worked tirelessly to rid Japan of Eggman, and did, with the help of River and N.I.C.O.L.E. who twins River (She found a picture of her online (Don't know how) and liked it, so she turned into her not thinking that they'd never meet), and we won the fight.

Antoine needed some time away from America, so he had came with me back to Japan, and he actually learned something from everyone in comparison to when he was surrounded by Americans who ditched him every chance they got and never actually taught him the language, save for the hick who believed that Antoine wouldn't be so much of an ass if they weren't one to him. Boy was she wrong, he's still an ass at times.

Back on subject, he is very smart, and he could keep a secret, so the Secrets of the Samurai were taught to him. Not all though, had he stayed there longer than a Spring and Summer. He was a quick learner and that pleased me a lot for I could teach him much in a short timespan. Then he went back to America, leaving me alone with Cookie.

Antoine and I drag Sonic's son to the grouping of children who all share the same defensive look, with Cookie's gaze not even reaching mine. All of them had that look as if they had just been caught red handed with their hand in the cookie jar, but this is **way** more serious, and the consequences will be heavy.

Cookie, Fast, and Fredrick are facing anywhere from life in prison to the death penalty, and I know the penalty will be harsher for Fredrick and Cookie than it will Fast, because Fast is only 13, and Cookie and Fredrick are 18 and 24, but I'm serious about the psychiatric ward for Fast because I can see it now the terror and mayhem that might reign over in a few years. I truly wonder if Sonic ever took notice that his son was a flaming sociopath.

"What shall we do with them?" Predator pants, breathing heavily to catch his breath. "I am not knowing vhat vee'll be doing viz zem." Antoine shook his head. "Psychiatric help for the boy." I say aloud about Fast. Fast only blinks monotonly. "What," Sonic blasts. "My boy is not a raving lunatic! We're not-" "Wanna make a bet?" I ask him.

"Yeah," he challenges. "Yeah. My son is mentally stable." "Zonic," Antoine steps in. "Look at 'ow dead 'iz eyez are. Eet eez like looking into ze statue. 'e eez needing ze 'alpz." "When I need a dialect barrier, I'll let you know." Sonic chided to him, backhanding Antoine's comment with an insult. Okay. That tears it, I've more than enough of him for today. If he's too stupid to realize that there's something off about his own son then I'll knock some sense into him.

"All of my babies would never have mental problems," Sonic denies. "They're all perfect little angels." I grab him and shake him, screaming, "You damn dumb fuck! Are you so fucking oblivious to the point your son has been orchestrating killings? What the hell?" Several men pull me back. "Flying," Antoine notions towards the frogman glaring at his own son. "Vhat do tu 'avez to sez about zis?"

Flying looks up and answers, "Let me see him." He examines Fast for a few moments before telling us all, "Yep, what I figured. Your son is a sociopath Sonic. Get him the help he needs before he becomes like me." Sonic shakes his head and says, "No. You're just saying that because you have to cast your jealousy on everybody else." "Jealousy," the frog spits. "What is there to be jealous about being a violent schizophrenic with psychosis who hears voices every second of his life when he hasn't choked down ten pills before he starts the day?" "I don't know? Everything?" Sonic argues, visibly crying.

"Look Sonic," Flying sighs. "We are at a crucial moment in our lives where we are living in surreality. We are vulnrable because we don't want to believe our sons did what they did. Just believe me Sonic, and let us work through this together, as fathers, not friends. Trust me, you'll need the advice." Sonic hesitates for a moment before saying, "Okay, I will. Where is the best place to get my son help?" Sonic shakes in his place.

And while they're doing that, it is a perfect time for me to denouce Cookie. I approach him, with his father's permission, and speak my piece:

"Kukkīchan, Anata wa watashi o fuwatarite imasu. Anata no ōheina taido no tame ni, anata wa watashi no minarai kikan-ka ni wa sakusei sa remasen, anata ga seppuku o komitto suru koto o sentaku shita baai, sore wa hazubeki shi to shite māku sa remasu. Mō watashiniha anata no kao o hyōji shimasen." (Cookiechan, you have dishonored me. For your insolence, you are no longer under my apprenticeship, and if you choose to commit seppuku, it will be marked as a shameful death. Do not show your face to me anymore.)

I fling myself away from him, for I have failed as a sensei. In the days of old, in order to preserve my honor, I would commit seppuku, but these are the days of new, so I won't have to do that, thank goodness.

While many of the teachings still stand in place, much has changed. Samurai no longer wear armor, and there are women samurai. As an added bonus, guns are in place of bows and arrows, unless you were taken atop a mountain where snow falls continuusly, and are trained by an older samurai. My father was a samurai, but he believed that the teachings of a father to a son are weak (I do not believe him, I have been thrown to the floor and broken many bones one too many times by his hands), and so I was sent away. Lightning was too, but his case is different.

A long time ago ninjas were family units that did not use ninjitsu for offense or defense, but to run. As time went by, they were developed to become killers, and the sword of the samurai sharpened as their shurikans sharpened. I have been trained to kill the ninja, as the ninja have been trained to kill the samurai. Best friend will be pitted against best friend one day, as brother will be pitted against brother.

The days of old are long past, but many still hold true to the old ways. One day I may meet Lightning in battle, and I may have to kill him, as he will me. I do not believe that will happen, but there was never a time when the ninja and samurai were ever friends. But to be dishonored by my own pupil not only shames me, but brings the ultimate dishonor to Lightning.

It is one thing to bring dishonor to your teacher, but to your father, and you be the eldest son, disgraceful. Lightning knows as what is to come, if he is emotionally strong enough to do so. I see the cuts on his wrists that not his gloves, nor his robes, may hide and hold strong to my doubts, for he is weaker than Sonic. Of course Sonic is bawling like a baby over a lost toy right now, but at least he doesn't pull a Lightning and tries to drink himself to death every chance he gets.

Antoine does not hold my beliefs, as expected, but I do admire his swordsmanship. I even taught him a few tricks, and he has made a better student than any eager swordsman in all of Asia. But Cookie now reeks of shame and dishonor, so sad, such a waste, but I must move foward.

When we have deccided onto what shall happen with the boys before us, we know that since Fredrick and Fast confessed to killing the most people, Fast will be sent to the Forgivenness Clinic for Juvinile Institution and Correction of the Criminally Insane, and Fredrick will go on death row. Cookie will spend three life sentences in his dad's prison for being an inactive participant in the murders, and for creating mass hysteria and terror.

They are loaded in a police car and that is the last I'll ever see of them. I look at Sonic, Flying, and Lightning, all hugging it out, and I think, _That could've been me._ It's not, but look how close it got to home. My pupil had betrayed me, and he was only a breath away from me. Imagine if I would've let my guard down, I would've been killed by him and never have known. It actually sends shivers up my spine just thinking about it.

I think I need to talk to Lightning. I walk towards him, standing close to a blank looking Predator, who opens his mouth before mine with a, "I do believe I still have a restraining order against you." _Don't look. Don't look. Don't look. Eye contact is an invite for a fight_ I tell myself. And it's the truth too.

I pretty much brought this on myself constantly writing Predator poems, following him around, talking to him constantly, moving into his room, smiling at him all the time, taking random pictures of him, serenading him in front of a roomfull of his teammates, and then the constant hugs. I loved to hug him. Eventually he filed a restraining order on me, and that was that. And since he hangs around Lightning a lot, I get to talk to Lightning through a walkie talkie, across the street, in a noisy cafe with lousy reception most of the time. Remember kids, stalking is bad. Real bad.

I still make an effort to talk to Lightning, and he reminds me of the restraining order before we get down to business, which is pretty much an apology about Cookie. He tells me he understands and that as a sensei I have a duty to perform, and as a father, he does too. He also tells me that everyone has a few minutes to spend to themselves and mourn before we continue further. Good, we all need it.

I take this time to take a piss and reunite with Antoine, only when I do, I see a random guy walk by, a tourist by the looks of his outlandish clothing and need to snap an explosion of pictures, stick money in Antoine's pants and gesture to him. I watch as Antoine assaults the man to the point he is pulled away by the others and shake my head.

I hate stereotypes. Everyone pretty much assumes that Antoine is either a French whore, a French Maid, or he's going to spit on them when they walk up to him, just like how everyone assumes that I'm going to squeal kawaii at everything and say nothing else. At least it's better than Nack's predicament. People automatically assume that he's a backpack murderer who drinks Fosters and smothers himself in barbeque sauce on special occassions.

Those naughty, naughty stereotypes run deep within us all. Of course the Americans are loud enough to pop an eardrum, but it's not like I'd expect. The only one here that fits the loud, gun toting, fat American stereotype is Vector, and he really needs to go put down the McDonald's bag and go for a walk, and maybe go to anger management, and sit up straight, and stop glaring at people... a lot of things.

What I'm trying to say is, when you go to France, don't do what this lunatic did here and stick a twenty dollar bill down a Frenchman's pants, or ask me to tell you all about my life as a ninja, or ask an Australian to identify what kind of snake you found, because likely, someone like me will just throw you into the ocean and walk away, for stupidity needs a rude wake up call sometimes.

I walk to Antoine to check on him, but I couldn't understand him. It's not that I'm being an evil jackass and come to rub it in his face, it's just he's speaking French so fluently it's difficult for me to keep up. I put my hands on his shoulders and said, "Antoinesan! Stop!" Antoine rants a few more verses and places his angry eyes in mine.

He settles down and places his hands on my arms and rubs them, apologizing to me. I tell him that there was no need for him to apologize and that he had every right to be angry in the best French I could muster up. He nods at me and smiles, and I tell him, "Just forget about it. That man was an asshole to begin with." "Oui." Antoine agrees, grinning brighter than ever.

We walk to a nice, cool shade, and by the time we sit our bottoms upon the prickly grass, we have to stand up again and herd ourselves alongside the group of tired men once more.

Lightning twirls around the warp ring along the edges of his fingers and looks at us all. "Children," he starts before he catches his mouth. "Sorry, force of habit. We now know what we must do next and that is go forth into the Parallel Dimension and capture Silver. This _will_ be dangerous," _Such reassurance._ "And we may die, as we are fighting him in his Infinite Form, as a harbringer of the end of the world. Yes Rock got away. Yes Bark is still on a rampage destroying the world as we speak, but I have a feeling that if we take down Silver, everything crumbles and the world is safe again and we can return to our lives."

"So if anyone wants out, do it now." Bean added, as if to finish up Lightning's statement. We've all come too far to quit now, but I know that somebody always wants out, it's a given, and they're usually the person that never speaks up and makes life a living hell for everyone else around them when they get to a point of no return. I've met a few like that. Couldn't take the pressure and got smashed under it. Some who've became a necklace of stones around my neck when they didn't take the golden opportunity presented to us right now to leave.

Lightning was right, I'm a hero and everyone's counting on me, I can't take a backseat now. Too many people are counting on me ranging from Antoine to River. Everybody.

And then at the snap of a finger, Nack and Skylar fall to the ground again, and I know that there's another eerie tome getting ready to slide off of their tongues in a matter of seconds, but something was wrong with Nack. He looked...dead. And then he starts convulsing. "Get clear! Get clear! He's an epileptic! He's an epileptic!" Sonic shouts, he and Jet dancing their arms in front of us to round us up and away from Nack.

"Somebody shoot him! Somebody shoot him! For the sake of the world, kill that damn bastard while he's down!" Vector shouts. The crocodile grabs his gun, poised to strike, but then another muscle spasm hits, and Sonic's in front of the crocodile, the gun in his hand sliced in half, and if I could see Sonic right now face to face, he would look so evil a demon would piss itself.

Sonic kicks the wheelchair, hard, slinging Vector out of it, making him roll across the field. Anther muscle spasm and Sonic is ontop of Vector's chest, standing on it, both of the croc's legs snapped. "Sonic," Jet screeches. "He's not worth it! Nack is!" "Nack is just a pile of shit! He ain't worth nothin'!" Vector screams out, sitting up to hold his legs.

Sonic was going to kill Vector right then and there. I would too if I were him. Ya know what, I don't even know why in the hell Vector's fat ass needed that damn wheelchair in the first place. He's not even that injured, and it reveals his true colors. I don't know any true hero that would attempt to kick an epileptic while he's down. Nack has done his damndest to help us all, but by damn does Vector do something to undermine it.

Nack saves the world, Vector says that he did it wrong. Nack goes to rehab for his booze addiction, Vector screams that he's hitting his wife. Nack wishes the crocodile a happy birthday, he gets threatened. Skylar tries to talk to him, he literally beats the living hell out of the boy. My Goddess, was I this blind to Vector the whole time? I had heard that Lightning was a villain and that the Chaotix were the good guys, but it seems the other way around.

Jet scoops up Skylar, who's murmuring something incoherent, into his arms and places him elsewhere. Sonic pulls some kind of needle out of his pants, and then injects it into Nack's arm. In a few seconds, the convulsions stopped and he looked lost. "Come along Nack." Sonic says to the man, picking him up. Nack stopped and looked at Skylar, still in Jet's arms, and touched his face. His dulls eyes faced foward and stood behind Jet.

"Skylar says that Silver is in the Special Zone, not the Parallel Dimension." Jet said, his tattoo of a nine tailed scorpion glistening across the side of his face, making his expression of seriousness look even edgier.

"Why the Special Zone?" Treenuts asks. "Well nobody can tell where a bitch's ass will shake next." Nikai puts in a rather... _illustrative_ term. "Son," Speedy says, rubbing his hand against the back of his son's head. "We're going to another dimension, not a strip club. You can imagine asses shaking in your face later." "Ah, okay father." the boy replies defeatedly.

"Are we all ready?" Predator asks as he and Flying open a Warp Ring together. "What choice do we have?" Charmy states, and he's through the Warp Ring with a bounded heap. We all follow in his footsteps. One by one we all hop through, and I was one of the last few to go, and I got to hear something dreadful.

What makes me mad is that I overhear Lightning telling Vector that one day he'll get his chance to hurt Nack, and it takes everything I have not to march over there and fling my fists into his face. Nack is a wonderful man, maybe a bit scary-looking, but he's alright. I throw myself though the warp ring and prepare for the hell to come.

 **I know that the comments about mental illnesses were a bit wrong, but I'm trying to make it First Person, which means that the story** _ **is not**_ **being viewed through my eyes, but Monkey Khan's, meaning, these are his innermost thoughts, so please, no flames.**

 **Fosters and McDonald's belong to their respective companies. And sorry about this chapter being so long. This will be the longest chapter in the whole story.**

 **Thanks for your support and reviews, with the next chapter being cleaner, as I promised cleaner chapters, and cleaner chapters you will all get. If it needs editting,** _ **tell me.**_

 **Your reviews mean much to me and will help me write better fanfics. Thank you and read again, for the plot thickens into the climax from here on out.**


	10. Jet's Sacrifice

**Note: I've only made a mention of the word LSD, a hallucinogen, and as protocol, if I even mention the word drug, I must tell all of you that drugs are evil. There is** _ **no,**_ **I repeat,** _ **no,**_ **drug use or any thereof. I promised clean chapters. Clean chapters you will get. Also, I don't own any characters thereof their creators, only my OCs.**

 **Chapter 10: Jet's Sacrifice**

Sadly, being here for the few minutes we all have has healed Vector's legs. Damn, now he really will try to hurt Nack the next time he takes a siezure. I didn't realize he was an epileptic till fifteen minutes ago, he was so good at hiding it, but I thank the Lotus Flower Goddess that his son wasn't an epileptic too. He really does care about his son to sacrifice getting his medicine to provide a meal for his son. To provide a new change of clothes for his son when he grew. To provide his son _his_ very expensive medicine ahead of his own, and he almost died for it.

He's a devout father, a devout friend, and a devout husband (Many beautiful women have came to him, seeking attention, and he just flashes that wedding band like a policeman does his badge, and the women leave). If anybody deserves to live, it's him. Regardless of the fact, I feel my body's hairs race across my skin as that all too reknowned tingly feeling returns to me. I don't know why, but I feel like I'm being watched. I look around me and nothings there, and the group senses it too. Since the moment we have arrived here, we have sensed eyes on us.

I thought the Special Zone was devoid of life, with only Nack and his son living here, but Skylar keeps bouncing around as if a pod of schoolmates were bound to pour out of the bushes to play with him. He's 12, I know, he's gonna be giddy, I know I was, but singing, dancing, skipping around like a little girl, what's up? Antoine and I share a look and then watch as the both of us spiral down a slide.

Yes, a slide. Did I mention that the Special Zone is basically an outlook into some LSD trip from hell, and you don't have to be on anything to know that once you get here, you won't wanna come back no more, and lay off the alcohol forever. The slide dissappears halfway and we descend into a mudpit.

"Ulgh. Putain." Antoine curses, swatting the mud off of his hands. I wipe it off of my face and look at Antoine, who looks cross between ready to vomit and ready to shoot someone, who gives me the dirty look. Antoine hates getting dirty. I never minded the mud, as Lightning and I loved to push each other into it, despite the scorn of our parents. I can't do that with Antoine.

Then we see these wierd creatures rise out of the mud. They look like normal Mobians, except with wings and larg claws. They look at us with their dragon-like eyes and start making these wierd noises. They walk towards us on all fours, whining and making little chirping sounds. A couple flap their wings and flit their heads around in confusion at us. There were six babies, but baby whats?

"Get out of the Birthin' Pools mates!" Nack calls to us. "Birthing Pools?" I mouth. I look at Antoine, and he looks at me, and a creature plops into Antoine's lap and bites his thighs. "Ah-a!" he exclaims, and blood starts oozing from him. Another one bites my calf and then we hear slurping noises.

"You need to get out now, or else they'll eat all of your blood." Nack warns. _How does he know so much about this place?_ I think. And then I smack myself. He's the guardian here, of course he knows much about this place. The creatures flick their heads around like baby birds and flap their wings, and continue to dine on our blood.

"Eef zeez are ze bebiez, zen vere eez ze mozairz?" Antoine asks me. And then I have an 'Oh Shit" moment. A mother, or mothers, is going to be coming around soon to collect their little ones, and they're not going to be too happy to find us here. Immediately, Antoine and I leap out of the mudpit and dash to a nearby bush, only that wasn't safe at all, until we saw a rope being tossed down to us.

We didn't know who had a rope, or where it came from, and we didn't care. We couldn't get away from that pool fast enough as the baby creatures made sounds of struggle and whined for our return. And we watch as 5 medium sized, winged creatures with black forked tails, and the teeth that would make anyone run for the hills, scoop up the babies in their claws, hold them against their chests, and scout away, screeching and speaking in a wierd language.

"I'd go say hi to them, but then they'd see all the fresh meat I brought with me and have a ball." Nack says to noone in particular. We all look at him, Antoine and I eyeing him hard. "I thought you were some kind of Thai, Polynesian baby?" Sonic gasped. "They 'ave a variation of it 'eah, mate." Nack answers.

"What do you mean?" Argon asks. "Well, my parents don't really exist on Mobius, though they decided to abandon me and my sister there, and since they couldn't be found on any database, my foster father adopted Nic and I, and then I found this neat little place!" Nack answers with a smile. "Well this neat little place almost killed me." I hiss grudgingly towards the weasel.

"Skylar, you drink blood?" Treenuts asked, a little terrified at the young weasel. I know I would be too. Skylar nods and answers, "But I like meat now." And then I almost have a heartattack. Antoine literally passes out, with Lightning catching him in time to smash his fingers into the dirt.

"Maybe that's why most of your kids died, because your wife wan't equipped to birth some other dimensioner's baby." Jessica blasts out with glee. Nack stops smiling and his eyes grow old. I really wish she wouldn't have said that, because now Nack might not help us, and with Silver on the loose, anything could happen, and we need him. His son is too much of an idiot to help us, so why bother asking him to lead us.

Nack looks at Skylar, almost with a sense of clarity, and then answers, "He's half Mobian, half Special Zoner, so 'e'll be alroight." He looks at Skylar and rubs his head before fixing his little hat before fixing his own. "Maybe I should make a device to help us locate these creatures. They look dangerous." Eggman speaks out. For once, I am in a agreeance with him. Whatever the hell Nack and Skylar are, it doesn't look like something I'd like to cross.

Geez, other dimensions are scary. Mobius is like a variation of Earth (that's why the humans came in the first place), only an animal sanctuary. Much of what is on Earth is on Mobius, with the Chaos and Flickies being the only exception. Here, winged creatures roost, awaiting to make a flesh buffet from us.

"What's the point mate," Nack chids. "They're all around us, watching us. They're just curious. They're not going to kill you unless you give them a legitamate reason to."

Well those lady creatures were eager to show themselves real quick. The weasel turns to me and Antoine and says, "Mate, ya might want to bandage yaselves up, you're still bleeding." Antoine and I look at our wounds and see the blood gushing out of there like a stream. We stop for a minute to take care of them and carry on.

After trying to track Silver, Nack stops and turns to us all. "Guys," he says, his eyes wide like he had just realized something big. "Silver just left the Special Zone, but we got company." "Are you lying you little snitch?" Vector sneers. Sonic poises himself to strike the crocodile again, only Nack placed his hands on the hedgehog's chest and looks at Vector. His voice is very calm when he says, "I am a guardian, I know all that happens here. I am here. Is that enough for you?" "Only when you're dead will I ever believe you." Vector spits coldly.

"Very well then." Nack blinks. "Who is here?" Predator asks. "Rock." is all that Nack says. "Shit!" Jet curses. Of course that bitch would be back. I don't know what Silver had hoped to accomplish by coming here in the first place, but this is the best place for an ambush. One minute the ground is white, next it is checkered. A city is in front of you one second, a wall of fog the next. Flat ground for a few minutes, then the world tilts. Plus random people that run straight through you like you're transparent. It makes me almost fearful to fight him here, but at least those creatures haven't appeared yet.

"Where is he?" Predator hisses before Flying could. "Close," Nack answers. "But this is the end." "The end of what?" Charmy chimes. "It's a bittersweet answer Charmy." Nack tells the bee. "Can we stop it?" Sonic asks. "Nope." Skylar smiled. "I don't care if the answer is made out of shit, how does it end?" Shadow demands.

"Shadow, I never get a clear answer," Nack explains. "I see multiple endings before my eyes. Many of us will go happily, a few of us won't. I cannot tell the answer due to discouragement, and everybody here has heroic urges to sacrifice themselves for one another, which is sweet and all, but let's save that for when an impending apocolypse isn't literally a breath away." "So in other words, we can do nothing to help the poor sap who gets the short end of the stick." Shadow sighs, eyeing Antoine like he knows something.

Antoine squeaks and grabs my arms with a grip like concrete, shivering next me. "And why should anyone believe that Antoine is going to get his card punched early?" I voice in snidely. "Because he's not a good Frenchman, that's why." Shadow snorts. I glare at him. "I know what you did to him." I say to the black and red hedgehog. "And does anybody care?" Shadow waves away. "Wait, what happened to Antoine?" Lightning asked, looking at me because he knows something is very wrong.

"He whined the entire time Espio, Sonia, and I played with him." Shadow answered like he had just told Lightning he had bought a gallon of milk. "I did not vant to." Antoine shivered, his teeth visibly clattering to us all, his eyes welling up into tears. "Shadow," Sonic says. "This is an all new low for- Lightning!" That last part was screeched when Lightning lunged from his place beside Flying and Charmy and started to beat the hell out of him.

Antoine relinquished his grip from me and told Lightning to pin Shadow down. Then Antoine took his revenge onto Shadow's face. When he finished, he wiped the sweat from his brow, the tears from his eyes, and, like he was daring us all, said, "'Ow am I now for a Frenchman?" "Very fine." Lightning smiled at the coyote, wrapping his arms around him. I approached the duo and did the same. "Remind me to get you a martini later." Lightning tells him. "I vill." Antoine nods proudly.

"Don't worry Nack," Vector tells the weasel. "I liked you a hell of a lot better than I did Sonia, Shadow, or Espio." "Gee...Thanks..." Nack answers awkwardly. "So where is Rock again?" Jet asks, getting us back on topic. "Down there." Nack points past the clouds we were now standing on. Funny, before Shadow got his ass kicked by Lightning and Antoine, we were in a sandy forest, now we're up in the air. We all look over the edge to a whole plethora of Nack's people going about their business like it was a marketplace.

They were speaking in a aweful sounding language and trading what looks to be bones for goods like bowls of blood, blankets, fresh meat, imported fruit, and jewelry. We look at Nack and Predator says, "Is this what you mean?" I sure hope that they're bartering over his corpse, he'll be one less bastard the world has. "No," Nack answered. "He's way at the bottom." "Dammit, you'd have to be a hawk to see down there!" Treenuts complained. "On it." Scar saluted.

He, Predator Hawk, and Jet remained asfixiated onto the bottom of this nightmare until we were alerted of the orange trash glaring right back up at us. "He's coming," Predator announces. "Be ready." In a few minutes the chattering below had stopped as the creatures intently watched as Rock flew up here and magically vanished into thin air. Sadly, Jet did too.

"What? What happened?" Sonic asked. "Right where none of you are natives here, strange things like this will happen to you all." Nack answered. "But what about Jet," Bean asks worryingly. "Is he okay? Will he return?" "He might." Not even Nack was sure of himself when he said those words, and now we all realize the meaning of bittersweet. Rock may be out of the way, but Jet is too. Now I'm getting scared. This place scares me. I just want out of here.

"Father?" Scar says to us all. He cocks his head to his side and looks around himself. He knows that something is wrong. "Do you know where my father went?" he then states frantically. "Child," Nack answers him. "I think it's best if you sit around and wait." "Well sitting around is gonna get us killed," Nikai says, pointing to the people of the Special Zone climbing upon the clouds to get to us. "Look."

"They won't hurt us." Nack denies again. "I hope you're not one of these people that believe if they say something till it's wore out it'll come true." Flying hums to Nack. "Well Flying, they aren't, but they have pheromones that are going to make you hallucinate like crazy." the weasel answers.

Pheromones that makes us hallucinate? What? As they near I feel like I'm under anastetics. My thoughts are jarred? Am I a pickle, or am I death? The albatross eats applesauce at night. Weee, I like popsicles.

I let out a scream and look at Antoine and scream again. He's covered in maggots that have eaten away at his core, his eyes out of his head, but he's laughing at me. Beautiful sunflowers grow around him. Now I see Lightning drinking from an orange juice carton filled full of ice only and flying on a pony. My staff is asking me on a date and I agree. Wow, how cute does Nack look in that fine, orange dress of his. I wanna hug him. "Potato!" I screech. I float in and out of conciousness, in this world one minute, making out with Argon the next for I don't know how long, but I'm glad when the madness comes to an end.

We all awaken out of our hallucinations to find that Flying and Predator are kissing each other like they mean it, Argon's hanging uspide down on a treelimb, Antoine fell asleep, Charmy is munching on a flower like it's a candybar, I'm standing next to the edge of the cloud getting ready to jump, and Nack and Sonic are standing before us with long faces, holding that cube Jet likes a lot.

Flying and Predator throw each other off of their lips, I back away from the ledge I was going to jump off of, wake Antoine up, and join the crew to ponder what had happened to Jet. Charmy chews on his flower loudly until Shadow yanks it out of his mouth so that way we can all hear Sonic and Nack's verdict.

"We all got our wish, but at a price," Sonic sniffs as he hands over the cube to Scar. "Here you go Scar." "Where's my father?" the boy asks, baffled as to why he has the cube, but Jet isn't around. "Jet sealed himself away with Rock." Sonic explained briefly and gently.

"Can he do that?" Bean asks. Nack narrows his eyes and snarls, "Yes. Yes he can." I say nothing, but look on in agony. I was a total bitch to Jet, and now he's gone. Scar will grow up without a father, Jet's wife will no longer have a lover to wake up too and smile at every morning. A quiet, empty house is all I see in the near future for him.

Silver will pay for this, and this only makes me think more of Antoine. If Silver turned on Jet, will Antoine turn on me? I look at Antoine, and I look at him hard. He raises an eyebrow at me and then I shake my head. Antoine looks taken aback by this, and I know that I've just nonverbally told the only person who truly has my back I don't trust him. I don't know if Antoine will turn into some dragon-like being himself, but I know that I have just given him the biggest insult he would ever come to know.

"What now?" Speedy asks. "Well, since I know where the people who leave here exit," Nack speaks softly. "I say the Parallel Dimension is where we'll be chasing Silver next." "So, another ring-a-ding-ding-ding-dong?" Skylar asks innocently towards his father. Nack looks at him for a minute before saying, "Don't look at me, I don't 'ave 'em." Skylar looks towards the Destructix and says all badass like, "You got the jizz, now hand it over."

"Skylar," Nack scolds. "Women are here. Never say the word jizz again in front of them." "Don't worry Skylar," Jessica adds. "Woman has the word man in it, so we're men too." "Uh Jessica, that's not how it works." Treenuts corrects her. "Then why do they call us women then?" Jessica disagrees. "If I told you that, you'd still be in shock." Treenuts argues. "But that can't be true?" Jessica refutes.

Sonic stands in between them and goes, "Nack, there are ladies here, never use the word woman again." Nack gave Sonic an irritated look before he sighs, "Alright Sonic. Whatever you say."

"Can we please just leave the place that my father died in?" Scar begs us all, tears glistening in his eyes. "Alright Scar." Predator says soothingly, opening up a Warp Ring. That boy couldn't get through that portal fast enough the way he was running, and neither could any of us.


	11. The Parallel Dimension

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 11: The Parallel Dimension**

I've never been to another dimension before. It's filled full of water everywhere, and strange merlike beings move under the waves. They circled us like sharks and made a move towards us. They're so pretty with their multicolored tails. It's like a dream out here, and I am loving every minute of it. I don't care if it lulls me to my death or not, but I wanna be the man who drowns knowing he has heard a beautiful voice.

"Everybody get out of the water!" Sonic shrieks. _Why?_ I ask myself. And then the beings reveal themselves. It's several catpeople with big, long lionfish spines on their lower backs, with the male's being bigger, gills glitening clearly on their shoulders and chests, fur occassionally brushing into it, their eyes bristled into slits, mermaid tails underneath them, lanternfish lights on their heads, the occassional bead on their foreheads, Ancient Greek clothing on their bodies, barracuda and sharklike teeth, and very hostile stances.

"Acca!" one woman shrieks. Then they all dive into the water and come after us. I don't speak their language, but I know that Acca means attack, and none of us can fight them off, save for Flying, Bean, and Vector, the only aquatic animals we have with us, but even they won't be enough. Lynxes hunt for fish in the depths of the rivers, but their not in there long, and as a monkey, I'm as good as dead in the waves.

Suddenly, men start dissappearing beneath the water and bobbing upwards, thrashing about to beat up our foes, and failing miserably. They leave Argon alone. I'm even taken down under the sea, and my, did Ariel ever put up a fight.

When my eyes weren't being stung by the salt of the sea, blood was in my view, and one of the mercreatures was swiming for my face, her claws extended to tear me to shreds, and I couldn't swim away fast enough. I feel her knives rake down my back and cry out in pain, swallowing a mouthful of water.

I'm drowning, I know that, but I still struggle to get to the air. Then I hear a man's voice, and the problem before us vanishes with grunts and complaints in their strange language. I rise quickly out of the water and cough for air. Several more join me as we all gasp for oxygen, but we are still swimming in our own blood. Luckily for us, we didn't lose any limbs, but deep gashes coat us all; long claws marks pant my legs, bruises and minor cuts are all over my body, but Flying got the worst of it.

The gashes in my legs reach from my ankles up close to the main artery of my thigh, but him, his eye is swollen shut, blood gushing from his mouth, his hairline, everywhere. Antoine is beside him, looking just as bad as he does with long gashes on his arms and wrists, and a missing chunk from his shoulder. His eyepatch was lost to the murky deep, unveiling the eyehole like a brand new bride to her husband.

"Vhat ze 'ell vas zat?" Antoine asks into the bloody expanse of wounded men. "A hunting party," Argon grumbles. "That's what we ran into. A hunting party." "Well Mr. Prince," Bean spits. "Why didn't you say something?" "I don't know." Argon shrugged. Bean lunged for him, but he was stopped by Nack. "If I hadn't said anything, you would be tore limb from limb by now." Argon explained harshly. Bean was awfully quiet after that.

"Are none of you 'ereing vhat I zaid," Antoine added in an exhasperatted manner. "Vhat ze putain vas zoze zingz?" "These are the people of Blaze's Dimension." Predator explains. "How," Vector challenges. "I've seen her on dry land before." "As a juvenile," Predator explains. "These are the adults." "I did not ask 'ow old zey vere, I azked **vhat** zey vere." Antoine barked. "And I said that these were the people of the Parallel Dimension." Predator retorted.

"I am meaning about ze ztability of ze zituation." Antoine argued back. _Wow,_ I think. _This is the first time I've ever actually seen Antoine have a real backbone and stick up for himself._ "We're in another dimension, some things are not as stable as they are on Mobius." Predator slammed. "Vell, veuk 'oo eez finally oozing zair 'eadz." Antoine smarted. "We are vulnerable out here. Don't make me kill you." Predator threatened.

"I 'ave nozing to be lozing, zo bring eet." Antoine challenged. "Oh Star Gods! Stop them!" Bean cried out. We all were pretty competent in the affairs of Predator Hawk, an assassin, and that Antoine has not won a battle with him yet. They are close, thanks to Antoine's military history, but not enough to win the fight for his life.

Suddenly we realized that Nikai and Speedy were nowhere to be seen. "Nikai!" Valiance suddenly cried. And our search began, with everybody diving as deep as they could to find them both, all of us fearing the worse. Argon dived the deepest, swimming in and out to find him. We searched for thirty minutes, and then we all emerged from the salted death liquid and decided to call it a day.

"They're dead." is the only words any of us hear from Shadow. We all hang our heads low. "I hate it here, let's go." Treenuts adds. "We all do," Sonic tells her. "But sometimes we have to do things we really don't want to, no matter the cost." "But we didn't realize people would...die." Skylar says, sniffling.

Sonic sighs and then says, "Why do you think that we didn't want you to come? We _knew_ this would happen." "But still, we came." Scar said, looking down at his father's tomb. "Mhm." was Sonic's only answer. "But what about Nikai and Speedy?" Skylar asks.

"Well son," Nack says to him. "We're going to have to leave them here to their watery graves." "Why?" Skylar asked, tears welling up in his eyes. "Sometimes, some people, when they die, thier bodies cannot be recovered." Nack tells him. Skylar hugs his father and just starts bawling. Then Scar follows soon after and pulls himself into Nack's back, basically pulling the weasel down.

"Boys," he pleads with the mourning children. "Can we please do this on dry land, you're dragging daddy down underwater." Skylar is a little clingy, but reluctantly, with Scar's help, eventually lets go of his father. I wonder if Skylar has ever been exposed to death because I know that Lightning sheltered Cookie and Lake from it, and they turned around and murdered a man to keep their father's murderous legacy in check. Skylar handled it like a toddler. I really question what Nack did to make him like that.

Then a set of bubbles form far away from the group, and we all gather to it, knowing that if it's an enemy, it'd dead, if it's something else, dead. Then suddenly, father emerged from the water with a dead son. His face was clutched close to Nikai's pale, frozen remnants. Deep gashmarks adorned his chest. Teeth pierced his sides. His jaw had been dislocated, and they had gotten away with more than his teeth and his eye. Nikai was no more than a gory crime scene.

"M-my, my, my," Speedy heaved, tears flowing from his eyes. "S-son. H-he's de-dead." Then Jessica wailed. "He was my boyfriend," she cried. "He loved me. Oh Nikai!" "How could he be your boyfriend," Skylar blinked. "He's a man, and he's married." Nack cuffed the top of his head and growled, "Not Speedy you idiot, Nikai!"

"This never would have happened if somebody had just let Jet do his thing and talk Silver down without pulling a little surprise party for him!" Speedy blasted towards Vector and Charmy. "How was we to know Nikai would die?" Charmy defended himself. "Blame Nack and his bastard. They're psychics." Vector added. Speedy turned to Nack and Skylar, tears forming in his drunken stated eyes. "Did you, did you kn-know?" he could barely choke out the words. "No," was all that Nack could muster out. "I could not forsee his death."

Speedy was exactly like Conquering Storm's father when his wife died during childbirth a year before I was born. When his anger looked for someone to blame, he took it out on everyone around him, but mainly Conquering Storm. She didn't like being around her father much, and neither did anybody else. Speedy was not going to be a joy to be around for a pretty long time.

Predator approached him and patted him on his back. "He won't go to the gods while he's wet." Predator told the mourning father. "I have failed as a protector." Valiance wept. "No you didn't," Predator comforted. "Nobody knew that this would happen-" "But I should!" Valiance countered. "Nobody's perfect," Sonic told the creation. "And there was nothing you, nor anybody else could have done. It's alright." Valiance was still at a loss of words.

"I was gonna listen to his new album, no matter how cringeworthy it was." Speedy sobbed. "Dude, nobody will miss his raps." Predator shook. Oh, he was right. They were vulgar, nasty, and terrible. They will not be missed.

"Oh Sun Gods, first Bark turned on us thanks to the apocolypse being just a block away, then Jet sealed himself away, now Nikai's dead. Could this day get any worse?" Predator yelled, smashing his fists into the water. "If I answered that, you'd pop our eardrums again." Nack answered, cocking his head to the side. "Well thank the Sun Gods for your consideration!" Predator snapped.

"Let's go find Silver." Shadow said, breaking the waves of anger. "Why do you care so much about Silver," Speedy barked. "Nikai's dead. My little boy is dead." "Because," Shadow replied. "Unless you want Nikai's death to be in vain, we need to hurry up and end this with Silver before anymore fathers suffer the fate you have, and the sooner we find him, the happier we will all be." "But he was my only son." Speedy sniffled.

"No he's not," Predator answered, pulling Valiance closer to them. "We still have **our** little boy." Speedy looked up and down at Valiance and said, "Yeah. He is. Despite the fact he's a canary." "Quick question," I say into the question. "How is a **male** hawk and a **male** Whatever-You-Are parents to a canary?" I never got a verbal answer, only glares.

"We've got a long while to look for Silver. How 'bout we converse?" Nack suggested, breaking into the flooding gates of emotion with the idea of a distraction. A distraction would be very good right now. "About what," Bean snapped, lapsing the idea back into a dramafest. "About Bark? About Nikai? About how we're surrounded by unstable fish people that'll turn us into Nikai?" "Bean-" Nack aswered, starting to choke with rage.

"No," the blind duck shouted frantically, crashing the disturbed waves around us. "I've lost Bark, I've lost Wave, I've lost Jet, and now I've lost Nikai. He was my cousin ya know. Family doesn't let family die, nor do they turn on their friends. I'm not like you Nack, and I won't ever be."

"Now you're blaming me!" Nack shouted out. Bean only replied statically, "Only you would find it easy to make your own blood sister stare down the cold barrel of your gun and rob her blind. Only you would callously make fun of a mute man. Are you going to make an old blind man suffer too? Are you going to betray us all in the end for money? What does Nack have to gain from all of this? Tell me, what does he?"

 **"Shut up! All of ya! I've left that damn life behind me! I haven't been able to escape it since I've left it!"** Nack has officially lost it, but Lightning only aggitates it more. "Men like you don't deserve retribution." "And here stands before us Lightning, as sinless as a saint. Pray tell me, oh Noble One, what act of purity have you committed now? Ra-" Nack sneers as he is stopped by Sonic, who begs, "Can we please move on from this. I think we got company."

We all look below our feet as some shark/lobster/seahorse hybrid from hell starts making a beeline for us. "Well shit! Just when my life couldn't get worse, it does." Speedy curses under his breath. "It won't hurt us if we don't look like we're threatening it." Argon told us. And immediately, we all huddle together and stop moving.

We watch as the creature circles around us a few times, makes a headsplitting shriek, circled us even more, and then head back underwater from whence it came. "Thank goodness it's gone." I sigh in relief. "Oui." Antoine agrees. "Well we all got lucky," Argon growled. "Because somebody literally pissed themself the entire time the creature was circling us," he eyes at Eggman like a tipped over trashcan. "That's why it stuck around the time it did."

"Well, that thing scared me and I also had to go." Eggman replied shyly. "Urine is a sign of fear, but you really need to lay off the pop and drink some water." Argon snorted. "Uh...er...um..." Eggman exhasperatted to himself, nervously clicking his fingers together. "I hope you're not trying to be mean." Sonic's eyes narrowed. "Don't worry, I'm not," Argon answered. "It's just all this death reminds me of my sister, Blaze the Cat."

"Is she adopted or blood related to you?" I ask, confused as ever. "She is blood, and she's not the only sister I have." Argon answers me. "How many others?" I ask. "Two others. She is the youngest." Argon answers. "And the guardian," Shadow adds. "So Silver's going to be looking for that power-" "On the only mountain in the Parallel Dimension." Argon groans.

"Only mountain," Eggman said aloud. "Sheesh, no wonder it got stolen at the rate it did." Everybody glowered at him before turning their attention back onto the problem at hand. "And Silver will go to the place he married her." Predator included. "But why?" Sonic asked. "He's going by memory," Flying answered. "And insane people have a deep memory."

"But what does this have to do with Blaze?" I ask. Argon stares at me for the longest time ever before he answers, "Because she was the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and wife of Silver the Hedgehog." And my jaw drops to the floor. Silver had a wife, and possibly children, which begs the question, "What about his children?" I ask it. Argon's yellow, amber eyes widen at me and he goes, "My two neices are on top of that mountain!" "And what about Eggman Nega?" Bean questioned. "Gone." was Argon's only reply.

"And Silver will be in a delusional state," Flying warns. "He will be hallucinating everything imaginable, and it could make him dangerous," he turns to Argon. "Your neices will be in more trouble than they can handle." "Then let's go! We have no time to lose!" Argon cried, showing the first real signs of emotion ever.

We become fast in our way to the Sol Mountain. Whatever had happened to Blaze the Cat only pushed Argon harder as he was slicing a pathway through that water like it was a cake. "What happened to Blaze?" I asked Antoine as we struggled to keep pace with the sonic swimming puma. "I do not know 'oo zat is, mon ami." he answers me.

I'm not a nosy person, but it intrigues me about what happened to her. What gory fate did Blaze meet by the hands of this madman? What is he truly capable of on his own? "What happened to Blaze?" I hear Sonic, a few steps ahead of me, clinging onto Flying's back, ask before I get a chance to. Argon skids to a halt in his tracks and stares widely out into the ocean.

He turns to us all, his yellow eyes shining with agony, and answers, "Blaze had cared for Silver during his descent into madness until he lost it and blew her face off of her body with his shotgun and then proceeded to try and kill his own children. Silver escaped, and we were left literally scooping my poor little sister's face off of the ceiling and walls."

Ew and oh. What a comforting tale to tell your children at night; but I still cannot shake away the shallowness of Argon's voice as he delivered the story. Argon seems like a natural stoic, but you could tell that there was more to tell than what there was. His face was ghastly, like the angered spirits of the dead back home, and he looked numb to answer any more.

And what about Predator Hawk? He looks so hollow right now, as if all the blood had been drained from him, but it looked to be rising to anger. "Why wasn't I told," he boomed. "All I told was that she had died by Lightning, and that she had already been buried in an undisclosed location. Do you know who I was to her? Do you?" Predator looked like he was about to cry, and his teammates rushed to comfort him.

"You were just a silly boy she dreamed about, like that Bean fellow she said she was going to marry." Argon answered. "I'm that Bean fellow." Bean mumbled under his breath. "She-she dreamed about me." Predator choked. "And I had learned that you two had connected." the purple puma replied like he had swallowed something sour. "By accident. We knew not of what we were doing," Predator replied. "But she cared about me? Like that?"

"She did." Argon answered through gritted teeth. "Why wasn't I told about her?" Predator gasped. "Because you profaned my sister's body and nobody wanted to put in the effort to find you." Argon answered hostilly. Predator was beginning to look more like someone had just shot him, but this aroused something in him, and it stirred wide open and spilled out amonst us all.

"I **will** find her body, and I _**will**_ give her the respect she is due!" he promised. "Blaze is also buried atop the mountain, deep within the Tomb of the Sol Guardians. You'll get to pay your respects there." Argon's voice chilled the air with those spoken words. It was almost like he spoke those words to shut Predator up, but at the same time, he gave us a clue as to why Silver would visit the Sol Mountain.

I don't really care about what went down between Predator, Blaze, and Argon, and I don't want to, all I care about is that Silver might be up there to mourn what he's done, and then he'll be trapped like a rat and we can all go home.

The still tension in the air lingers for quite some time, like an eerie fog draping itself over us, and only Eggman has the power to break it with a, "We have something of more importance than a squabble over a corpse. Let us-" And _Boom!_ Eggy was knocked unconcious by the fists of the warring males. Only Sonic and Nack caught him. Nack gave a tsk tsk into the quietness, and Sonic murmurred, as if the unconcious Eggman could hear him clearly, "Watch how you deliver your words next time, Eggman."

Eventually, with much convincing, we manage to get Vector to carry Eggman, with him cursing all the way, and **still** Predator and Argon has not let up on the topic of Blaze.

"You took my sister's maidenhood!" Argon cried. "I could not help that I was raised in a you don't want what you don't know about kind of society!" Predator retorted. "Oh, so now you're naive," Argon challenged with a snide chuckle. "You don't look to be the type." "Well you don't look to be the type to be talking much either, given how you left your sister to be beaten down by the others of your-" "Enough," Flying intervened. "You two have been arguing since the moment we've mentioned Blaze's name, so shut up!"

Both men looked on at Flying's gaze, which has silenced the group even more, and you could tell now was not the time to trifle with him. He had always told Predator Hawk to shut up over everything, and even then he still got some backlash, or Lightning inputted his two cents and the three of them wound up in some huge arguement, but they still listened to Flying. They only got away with it because they were his friends, one man, on the other hand, told Predator Hawk to shut up, and Flying went Jason Vorhees on him.

Flying's eyes had always scared people when they saw them plastered onto them like paint to a wall, and not even the smile could freak you out more than those blue eyes peering deep withing your soul, examining your fears and ransacking your heart to the extreme. He was one of these people that really didn't have to say much to get you to back away from him. You could even tell from Predator and Argon's stances and expressions that those two eyes of Flying's haven't diminished in power.

Predator and Argon kept to themselves, and Flying took the lead. Lightning had whispsered a few things to him, but I couldn't tell what they were. I look at Antoine and find that he's gotten lost in his own world, following the others, and I tell that everything will be tense from here on out. Only the last thing I need is Antoine turning into a monster too.

I swim closer to him and he looks at me, confused. I give him a light nudge with my knuckles and as I ready myself to say something, I hear, "Hell!" And a mighty splash. I thout we were being attacked until I saw Vector grudgingly reach his hands under the water and yank Eggman up by the mustache on his face and Bean by the beak. Neither were happy, both were in pain, escpecially Eggman, and I giggled a little, but I still got to hear Bean and Vector argue, which sounded more like Bean might as well be talking to himself, and Eggman was grumbling and moaning in pain.

Argon skidded in place with a huff and turned around. He glowered at Bean, Vector, and Eggman, and demanded, "Why is there commotion?" "Well fatass fell on top of me," Bean explained. "After Vector dropped him." Vector flings out, "No I didn't!" To which Bean snorts, "Sure ya did." I hear Bean groan, and then we turned our attentions ahead of us.

It took a few hours, but we made it, at last, to our destination, which was a snow covered beach. I mean, there were palm trees and everything, but it was so snowy, I could hardly see, and this place gave me the icy feeling that I was utterly alone.

"Sh-she's here?" my teeth clatter as I looked at Argon. He gave me a solemn, "Yes." Great. I managed to escape pneumonia back in France when I fell into the Siene, but after hours worth of soaking in the ocean till I became pruny, I will not be looking foward to the dry off. The effects were almost immediate for Flying, Vector, and Charmy, who are cold blooded animals, which means that their body temperature is going to start reflecting on the snow, if we all don't break our legs first.

The sand is literally snow covered ice, and the only animals here that could walk on it would be Lightning, and Bark, if the polar bear was here. The mountains shouldn't be a big deal for him either, as the brand of lynx he is, a Canadian Lynx, he should feel at home here, but let's hope he doesn't go off the deep end and run after a bunny rabbit making tracks in the snow.

Antoine and I find ourselves slipping on the ice, and when we finally get a grip on the ice, a huge rush of wind hits our wet bodies and knocks the breath, and the balance, right out of us.

We fall over, making Antoine squeal out with pain, as I know that that brush of wind, and the fall, did nothing good for Antoine's cuts and bruises from the fight with the Parallel Dimensioners.

Then another shrill cry pierces the air as we hear Speedy making the most blood curdeling screams he's probably ever cried. Nikai was nowhere to be found. Where did he go I wonder? I remember that Predator had told Speedy, "To the gods." Well, the Lotus Flower Goddess is accepting of all, and I really hope Nikai is in a warm place right now getting taken care of and drinking the finest jasmine tea.

I don't know really of what to say to him because I know that our notes are swinging on different chords with one another, and I'm afraid of insulting him. I turn my head away and help Antoine up, grabbing him by his arm and helping walk across the ice as Speedy sorts out his issues, and it was not a long while because Argon hurried him up with a harsh, "The bitch is dead. C'mon." I could feel the shards of hate gleaming at Argon like a crystal to sunlight.

Nikai wasn't a bitch, he was Speedy's son, and Speedy's wife is going to be in the worst pain any mother could have with a dead child. And what happened to Argon? It seems like he went from the quiet one that always has something useful to add to the group to a hateful bitch. No wonder Blaze didn't want to be around him. I am truly beginning to wonder what Argon's true motives are.

Speedy was sniveling by the time we had all gotten off of the ice, and Argon's iron grip hasn't been wiped away just yet. He screamed out a fountain of profanity at us and then pointed out that we'll have to trek through a forest, made out of pine trees that look a lot like the ones back in Japan, and then we'll reach Sol Mountain. He snorts a mountain of steam in the air and turns around, declaring, "Onward!"

"Wasn't Lightning calling the shots before?" I hear Sonic ask himself. I really don't know at this point. Even he looks baffled himself, and everybody else's face pretty much wrote the rest of our trip. Some, like Antoine and I, thought of Argon as a traitor, some thought he was grief stricken from Blaze, others wondered if he was going through Royal Brat Syndrome, or an illness that takes a perfectly normal, kind, sweet individual, and turns them into an absoloute spoiled diva.

I know that Antoine has had his moments here or there (he one time yelled at the royal tailor for making him a red cloak instead of a white one and sentenced him to death), but not like this. No, Argon is not demanding an Ultimate Peach, Strawberry, Limeade, Sugarberry, Vanilla Icecream Smoothie with blueberries, chocolate chips, gojiberries, gooseberries, bananas, and decorated with a bamboo stick fresh from Veitnam, and delivered on a 30 carat gold platter embellished with rubies and served by some hot Spanish chick, but his behavior is almost like that of a controlled tantrum.

The way he slings his hands ferociously is almost like he's trying to hit someone, the furrowing of his eyebrows looked wild with anger, and his strut spoke like he was the king of the world. His voice boomed loud enough to overpower the wind, and it was getting ready to land him in a fight with several of the guys. Antoine looked especially frustrated, ready to protest to the puma that he can't treat us like garbage, but he knew that he would sound so hypocritical I might say something to him.

But he is our guide, and without him, we'd never know where the Sol Temple is, and by the looks of it, I don't think he does either. So where are we being led? Down these twisting, winding pathways. It's like we're being led through the body of a snake, and we're going to have to take shelter soon, Flying, Charmy, and Vector don't look too good.

I turn and see Nack without his coat on, and see that Skylar is wearing it instead. Nack has to be blistering cold, as I'm outfitted in a full kimono and my hands are already freezing off of the bone. "Vhy d-did 'e not d-do ze varnining of ooz z-zat eet v-vould be zis c-cold." Antoine complained, and rightfully so. Most of us maybe warm-blooded, but we'll soon turn into Flying, Vector, and Charmy if we don't find shelter soon.

The only people that look to be having a good time is Lightning, Valiance, and Shadow, with the latter two being creations, and the former being a creature of the moutainous snow. Lightning is very energized, but he's not flouncing around to be hurtful, he's flouncing around to make sure nothing comes after us, and Argon takes notice.

"You don't need to worry about anything coming after us here," the puma hissed. "This place is the most isolated place in all of the Sol Zone." "Except for Silver." Lightning retorted haughtily. Argon fell silent. Argon tried to make a few comeback statements, but they couldn't stack up to Lightings words. Argon gave a hostile, defeated sigh, and we continued onto our journey.

Now realize this, the Sol Mountain was steep, rocky, windy, and with constant blizzards, and that meant that we had a long way to go, and some of us were going to have to carry three people we know. Flying fell first and was being held against Lightning's body, then Charmy, then Vector, and they fluttered in and out of conciousness, and I don't think that it's a good thing that wherever Lightning stands, there's no snow for a couple of feet. He's going to get so hot he combusts, but it does the trick in waking the crocodile, bee, and frog up.

"Guys," Predator says to us all urgently. "We need to get up there and quick." "We know that!" Lightning spat. "How long will it take to get there?" Shadow asked. "Three hours." We all groaned at Argon's words. "But I can't stay like this this long, I'll die!" Lightning sputtered out. "Oh well." Argon shrugged. Lightning's mouth hung in disbelief, and mine does too.

I can remember when Lightning had overheated from using his powers to protect me. It wasn't a pretty sight, and scared me more than when we had our first encounter with Robians. He was doing fine shooting out bolts of electricity like the ocean rolls it's waves onto the sand, until suddenly, he stopped, his mouth open wide, and his few movements was like he was glitching like a computer. Suddenly a huge bolt of lightning came down and struck him, and an orb of light took his place my Atom Bat (I found it in the woods and decided to take it. I didn't think it actually worked) absorbed him.

I was captured by the Robians, tortured, and then saved by Lightning when I released him on accident. Little did I know, that was a perk of my staff, but at a cost. It actually attracted the elementals and made them hostile, and it was no surprise when Lightning got through whipping Drago's ass (Yeah, he was there), he decided to whip mine, so I trapped him again and released him in a body of water and ran. I knew I couldn't outrun lightning, as Electrokinesis was one of those abilities the user could fein having super speed, and I made sure the bat was hid when he was around.

Then the Conquering Storm incident happened and Lightning ran away, and a few days after that, I was capturd by Robians, and my staff labeled as a cursed object by the Freedom Fighters, only retrieved when Antoine and Sally saved me from my stasis pod. Because it was mine, they gave it back to me, and yes I have every element at my command, and when I learned how to use my staff correctly, the elementals I attracted, who still tried to kill me, even Lightning when I found him again.

My sole purpose was to apologize to him, not absorb him, and he seemed to think that I liked to do that on purpose, even the purple catgirl he and Predator hung around.

Eventually, my staff broke when I sat on it, and that was the end of that.

I didn't catch what else was being said, thanks to myself going on a wild tangent, and so I was left to asking Antoine the questions, which he did a piss poor job at answering. Then again, he could not explain either the phenomenon that is powers, so for the remainder of the trip Lightning exhausted himself with his powers and almost died, Shadow created friction in the air using his speed to make warmth and electrical currents, and Bean could not contribute like he wanted too.

Eventually we reach a small flat of the mountain that was big enough to fit us all on it and give us legroom. It was snowcovered and dreary, and another cliff was before us. Lightning, Antoine, and I take steps towards it and look upwards. Antoine gave a whistle.

We see a small house made out of wood and furs, a huge plank of pelts guarding the entrance. Beyond that layed a tall tower. "Blaze lives there," Eggman said as a new voice that made me flinch not from fear, but from staring at the house forever. "How primevil." "Well, that was all she had." Bean tells the human man, his voice adding to the mixture. "But she was a princess?" Eggman blubbered out. "It does not matter," Bean replied. "A princess can be raised anywhere."

"But-" "Hey guys," I shout to everyone. "Look up here." After a few seconds, many people gather around us and remark on the house. Even Skylar and Jessica, who say, "Wow, that house is up on top of a cliff!" "It's not a house, it's a home." "Does it make any difference, Jessica?" The last part belonging to Treenuts.

"Yes it does," Jessica argued. "People live in homes. Construction Workers build houses." "That the people live in." Sonic corrected her. Keep in mind that Flying's occupation is a construction foreman, so I think he's busy trying to wrap his head around the fox's stupidity. "Uh guys," Shadow called out to us. "We have a mission. We can play Stupid Daughters later."

Sonic scowled at that remark. Treenuts scoffed and Jessica cocked her head in confusion. "I didn't know we were playing a game." she mumbled.

We begin our climb up the cliffside to reach the house above us. Maybe they might let us near their fire because it's cold and the blasted wind isn't helping much either.

As a monkey, climbing is one of my strongsuites, it's what I was made for. Antoine on the other hand is more of a digger, and thus, climbing is not his cup of tea, and so, he is more than a few steps behind me, he's all the way at the bottom. I whistle towards Lightning, grabbing his and Flying's attention, and we make sure we help the others who were falling behind.

"I got Vector." Flying tells us, and I nod at him. I climb back down and help Antoine up the steep climb, guiding his every footstep. At one point I had to push him, by the butt, up a part of the cliff, and when we finally reached the top, Antoine hauled me up the mountain by my tail. Why Antoine chose to grab my tail I'll never know, but one thing is for certain the slap he got across the face.

He recoiled at my touch and many heads turned at me. I don't care because my tail is a sensitive area, and if it breaks I'll lose my balance and have to walk on all fours till it heals. Think of how Nack's tail is bent, he can hardly walk straight without tripping, and how would you like it if someone pulled on your tail? Not to mention, I hate my tail being touched because Eggman constantly cut it off of my body and sowed it back on after an infection had set into me. Sometimes he'd dangle me by the end of my tail over a boiling pit of water. One time he nailed me to the ground by my tail, and all other sorts of things were done to it.

Now you see why it was such a big deal for Antoine to haul me up by my tail by the end of the cliff. Antoine still held his face, but I held no remorse for him. He knew what had happened to me and he knew better than to touch me there, then his head turns to face me, and terror siezed me. For once I'm actually afraid of him, and I look around, not wanting to see his angry eye, and note how many people look like they wanna hurl me off the side of the cliff. I think it'd be better to look Antoine in the eye.

Then I realize my mistake too. Antoine had been slapped so many times for absoloutely no reason it was traumatizing to him. The hick only slapped him once or twice, and everyone else slapped him every chance they could.

"Can we just get this trainwreck off of the damn road?" Argon huffed in annoyance. I wanted to say something back, but nothing came to mind, so I just sneered at him. Then I hear growling and throw my head down, looking at Antoine's pinned back ears, his wild dog eyes, his uber sharp teeth. I scoot back from him, and he barks, "I guezz ve are even zen."

I was too afraid to move, but Antoine wasn't. He got up, his claws out, making me flinch, and, and, and...helps me. I hesitantly stand up and look at him in the eyes, my handmark turning blue and leaving the side of his face swollen.

"Let ooz go, mon ami." he then smiles at me, making me drop my mouth in astonishment. "Yeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!" Argon groaned like a frustrated teen. We all glare at him, but we might as well follow him, he knows more of what he's doing than us.

We looked at the house as we approached it. It looked more like a makeshift wigwam with pets covering the outside. Even the door was made out of pelts, but what did own the pelts before? Do I really wanna know? Either way, I soon learn it from Prdator, who says, "I wish I would've thought of that as a way to dispose of my adversaries."

I think I, and everyone else were about ready to faint. This Blaze girl must've been some kind of a sadist to do that to people, or very desperate to get warm, and maybe to *gulp*, eat.

A couple of people smelled around the place, eventually leding us inside the house. I pushed back the pelt door and wandered inside with the rest.

Someone had been here recently based on the smoldering spic, dirtied plate and cup by the spic, the unmade bed made out of pelts that was raised up off the ground by wooden planks drilled into the two wooden stilts that held up the side of the house, and the various picture albums that layed open like diamonds on display. Ancient Greek style clothes were laying around an open trunk.

"Blueberries isn't here." Argon breathed. "Vho ez zat?" Antoine asked. "Blueberries is Blaze and Silver's daughter." Argon explained. "Woah," Jessica said in astonishment, her eyes wide with wonder. "How did that happen?" "Sis," Treenuts groaned. "You know how." "Wait," Skylar choruses in. "How?" Nack smacks Skylar in the back of the head and yells, "Shut up! Damn! Let the man speak!" "Yes dad." Skylar murmurred, his eyes fixiated on the floor.

Jessica and Treenuts became as silent as ghosts, as was the crew for a second, before Sonic asked, "Well, what happened to her?" "She might've gotten scared and ran off somewhere, or she may have went with her sister. I don't know, I don't keep tabs on her, Blaze does." Argon sighs like he was telling us that his car had burst into flames for the 100th time.

"Do you think it's because of Silver," Charmy questions. "Will he try to hurt her?" "He tried to after he killed Blaze-" "The twins," Nack suddenly gasps. "We forgot all about Jarret!" "Who's that?" Argon raised an eyebrow and growled. "Knuckles and Rouge's son." Sonic explains.

"I don't think Jarret was important enough to be in Silver's high ranks." Sonic explained. "But he is the son of a guardian." Nack butted. "With Daylight being the guardian." Sonic finished. "But still, he's out there." Nack agued. "And when we find him, we'll take care of him." Sonic soothed. The purple weasel glanced at him one last time and continued on with listening to Argon, staring at them as if they've lost it.

"Then who's making sure she's alright since Blaze isn't here anymore?" Predator bursts out like he's been holding his breath forever. We all stare at him. "That's a very good question," Argon gulped. "Who?" "And what happens if Blueberries dies?" Flying asked.

"The Sol Emeralds will be siezed by Silver, and then Strawberries will have to take her place." Nack answers. "Oh," Flying returns. "But who's Strawberries?" "Blueberries twin sister." Nack replied.

"Lightning, there's some old clothing I left here a long time ago. Wear it, if it isn't gone." Predator instructed. The lynx gave him a blank stare for a moment before he did as told.

He didn't look as bad, but my won't he be cold in that? He was wearing a long, dingy white loincloth that covered his front and his butt (and that was it) that stretched down to his feet, but almost didn't cover above his unmentionables, with the gladiator sandals being a bit big on his feet. He wore a double bandolier on him made of thin leather, almost like he threw two belts over his shoulder, a lopsided belt, and that was it.

As he stepped his loincloth swayed, meaning he would flash us all with any major movements. It almost made me wonder why Predator would leave such an outfit here. "You look nice." Predator compliments. "Thanks," Lightning replied. "Though it's rather not my style." "Then go naked!" Argon roared.

Lightning sneered and said nothing, but you could feel him itching to electrocute him. "Hey, let's make a fire." Nack suggested, and for once, people agreed with him. "What are you doing?" Argon growled at the weasel gesturing for Lightning to light the fire. "Keeping us warm." Nack retorted as Lightning emmitted a spark from the brush of his hands and a warm fire became lit. "Put it out," Charmy hissed as soon as his eyes lit up to see the warmth before him. "You're giving us away!"

"It won't matter in the end, mate," Nack told him. "We're gonna have to meet him sooner or later." "It seems like he's closer than we think," the bee observed. "As this whole place looks like someone was in a hurry to get away fast." Now that he mentioned it, it really did look like Blueberries was in a big hurry to escape from here.

It made me feel like Silver was breathing right down the side of my neck, and even then, I could agree with him, and it made me shiver in my place. Antoine wraps his arm around me and nudges me as a kind of comfort before declaring, "Zen ve should be ze long gun by now."

"Don't you mean, 'long gone,' Anty-twan." Sonic teased playfully. Oh Goddess, even _I_ cringed at that nickname. Anty-twan? Sounds like the kind of nickname I would have given Antoine as a toddler. Just like Lightning, who's real name translates to Inadzuma, I used to just call him Denky, a short of denkou, another translation of lightning. I'm pretty positive Lightning would hit me now if I called him Denky again.

Oh, Sonic got some looks, and we made him as uncomfortable as we possible could. A few more awkward moments passed before we continued on with our treck, Predator smoldering the fire with some dirt that was strewn about in the house.

As we step out, seceral people look to the sky, especially Charmy, and then we march on. After feeling the warmth of the fire, even though it was only a few minutes, almost made me forget the mission, and even worse, I had finally found comfort, and that was going to make the next climb- up a longer, steeper, narrower cliff- even more enjoyable that it already was.

The tombs were not much warmer, as I could still see my breath, but at least I didn't feel like I had a blizzard breathing down my back. Even worse, these tombs were so dusty, I don't even have allergies and already my nose is ready to rumble.

These tombs were made out of clay, not very sturdy in this kind of weather, and a whole bunch of torches were lit. This allowed us to see the hundreds of bodies lined up like library books on the shelves of the tombs.

They are all lying down like they are asleep, with a blanket thrown over their bodies as if they were in a warm bed and not some dusty tomb, with a crown and a manuscript, both stone and paper, laying on their cores. You could see lumps of beloved possessions peeking up from the covers.

And there on an eye-level shelf laid the golden girl herself. Like some of the decapitated bodies, a large, silk linen laid across her face, only there was no face to show, her crown and a large roll of paper sat upon her stomach, and placed in her hands was a futuristic ring, a bandana, and the headband of Predator's. She seemed larger than the pictures I had saw of her where she had a small frame. This Blaze outdid the Great Pumpkin in size, but you didn't hear that from me.

Predator, Lightning, Sonic, Shadow, Nack, Bean, and Eggman looked old staring at her body.

"He-her f-face." Predator muttered shakily.

"I never-" Lightning's voice cracked, dissallowing him to finish his sentence.

"Blaze." Bean whispered like he was reliving a bad memory he couldn't escape from.

"I caused her so much trouble and now I can't take it back." Nack lightly sobbed.

"I was her first kiss." Shadow's ears drooped.

"All those adventures," Sonic choked. "It wasn't suppossed to be like this. Not like this!"

I take it not many people were able to see the extent of the damage done to her? What scares me most is how blank Argon's face is. His face is blank most of the time, but not this time around. He seems angry, and now he has a face so deviod of emotion, you'd think he was trying to hide his hate for her from the mourners. Maybe he was, the way he's spoken about Blaze and everyone today.

Suddenly, Argon pushed his way through the crowd and snatched the paper off of Blaze's stomach and unfurled it in his claws. He snorted at the writing like it was a court order for a Restraining Order Petition.

"What does the paper say?" Nack asked. "It is a list of all her good works for the people, as well as her full name," Argon answered numbly. "Keep in mind that her name is longer than her deeds."

"Ya know what Argon," Predator declared snidely. "I am a serial killer-" "So?" Argon interrupts. Predator ignores it and continues, "Blaze has done more good than years all of us put together has lived. Blaze's deeds far surpass all that you've ever done for her." "You insolent son of a bitch," Argon sneers in insult. "I've done everything for her!"

"Like leaving her to man both her kingdom and as a guardian, with both contending a great demand for her attention." Predator snarled. Right now, the curl of his eyes alone would spook you into submission. "And where were you when Blaze was being bullied?" Predator challenged. Argon was now starting to look like a guilty prisoner.

"When I found her, she was sniveling on the pavement of Mobius, as fresh as I was to the new world, and I took care of her better than you did," Predator just kept adding more firepower to his gun, and Argon started to look like he'd break any minute. "We found out what pizza and video games were together. We even discovered a love for basketball, where we could kill somebody for the ball. I showed her the affection she was never gave. So where were you? And her sisters?"

"I was partaking in the merriment of her pain," Argon snapped at last. "She was the only one with pyrokinesis, the only one with powers in all of the Parallel Dimension to be exact, and she was going to kill us all."

"Because she had no control." Bean added. And now I see Argon's true colors, and see how Bean is actually a nice wierdo, despite the fact how dangerous he sounds now. I'm sure noone wants to hear an argument, so here's what it boils down to:

Bean tells us all that just like Blaze, he was special, only the people on his planet wanted to either destroy him or use him, and he too had no control over his powers. He tried to hide it with bombs, like Blaze tried to with her magic cape, but you can't hide the fact that you've just burned down your city and the people had formed a riot because of you.

Lightning also vouched for this because his powers were difficult to control without a price, and he too felt outcasted because he made constant lightningstorms all over Stormtop and hurt a lot of people, and his lightning always struck twice. He couldn't hide it as well as his sister and the people wanted him gone because of it, despite the fact that we had a bunch of elementals that lived there, including a **whole** brood of **electro and atmokinetics!**

And to cut the arguement short, Argon gets mad and says that he didn't want to rule, and his two other sisters wanted to become guardians, which is a factor one cannot control, and that if Blaze wouldn't have left the Parallel Dimension in the first place, none of this would have happened at all.

Many people get mad at Argon because many of them have found themselves accidently falling down a wormhole that leads to the Parallel Dimension, and that without her, Silver would still rampage like he is now, but then they wouldn't know where to look for him.

Then the place starts rumbling around us, and Shadow goes to investigate, and when he comes back, he says that Silver is here, fluttering around the mountaintop like a harmless butterfly.

Suddenly, we see another Eggman materialize out of the sky and start fighting the Iblis Silver.

"Eggman Nega!" Shadow screamed.

"I thought you said he was gone!" Sonic turned on Argon. "He was," Argon answers. "That's his clone, Eggman Nega X." "Why the hell does he have a clone?" I call out. Great, now there's not only two Eggmans, but three. I love my life.

"Without Blaze to keep him in check, he made a clone and then died of old age. He's been terrorizing us since!" Argon answers with desperation clinging to his voice. "She's not so much of a killer now is she?" Predator smirked slyly. Argon glared at him speechlessly, knowing that he is correct.

We all watch as Eggman Nega X flies around in that shitty ass hubcar every Eggman loves, shooting out lasers and doing nothing more than infuriate the beast more.

 _Great,_ I think. _Just what we all need, a pissed off Silver._ I know that what Eggman Nega X's will come to-our untimely demise- but yet I find myself cheering on his audacity.

Anger will take away Silver's power, and then we'll be able to handle him, but for right now, I can feel the heat of adrenaline in my bones, and I'm sure Silver has it pounding through his, and we watch as Eggman Nega X was tore in two by Silver's massive teeth, and then look at his next targets-us.


	12. The Final Battle

_**I ONLY OWN MY OCs. EVERYTHING ELSE BELONGS TO THEIR CREATORS.**_

 **Action Chapter, so it will be shorter than the last, and sadly, that means that this fanfic is only a few chapters away from closing.**

 **Also, some of the metaphors will be strong in this chapter, just know that I am not biased and this is all part of the developing characters and the plotline.**

 **Chapter 12: The Final Battle**

Silver roars at us, and Skylar roars back. "You bitch! You killed my son!" Flying screams out. Silver only answers him with a roar and a nosedive, making us swoop out of his way.

I narrowly dodge him in time to allow his wingspan to rake across the hairs of my head, making me do what any sane person would- scream and grab my the back of my skull.

From where I sit, his wingspan stretched into the arms of eternity, and I was in their hell. When it had finally dissappeared, it was all it took for me to not bolt from the scene.

The ground's not open wide enough for any of us to properly move, so we're stuck where we stand, and likely, we'll bump into one another. I knew Lightning's rival, Espio the Chameleon, was claustrophobic, and I never suffered from the fear itself, until now.

I can literally feel the edges of the cliff as I dodge each attack, struggling to make one myself. I swing my sword a few times and barely land a hit. Maybe once I landed a hit hard enough to graze the hide of his foot a little, but then I was almost grappled by his claws.

I don't even dodge them the second time around. I black out and wake up, my eas are ringing, there's blood pouring out of my eyes, I hazily see a bone trying to poke out of my arm and touch it. I scream. Antoine is beside me, jumping over the low swinging tail of the Iblis Silver.

He turns to me, his sword and mine grasped in his hands, sweat dripping from all corners of his body. "Mon ami," he presses urgently, shaking my soar body. "Mon ami! Mon ami! Leiang! Sil te plait! Get up! Get up! Leiang!"

I blink at him, and then several feet hop over us as Antoine slings himself over my body to protect me as a huge shadow descends on top and then a violent shake corrupts the mountain and startles me up. I grab my arm and look to see Silver hanging off the side of the mountain, slamming a psychic wave into us all.

Most of the mountain screams, with Lightning and Bean being the most major exceptions. I, clutching my head, see the two with buried feet into the ground. Antoine and I uncover our ears and I tell Antoine about my broken arm. Imediately, he rips a piece of his shirt off and quickly patched me up.

I take my sword in my other hand and try to prepare myself to fight. I know that I'll never suffice. Then I hear gunshots ring out and, "Die motherfucker!" From none other than Shadow the Hedgehog.

"There's a special place in hell waiting for you, you little fuck!" he cries out as he rolls foward, unloads his pistol again, and did a homing attack.

The last time I seen that was when I betrayed Lightning to Sonic and Sally and promised the Bride of the Clan that I would challenge Lightning to a duel for the loyalty of the Raiju Clan. I did not uphold that honor, and for a moment, I felt very proud of myself, until a few nights later, when I suddenly realized what I had just done to my childhood friend.

Nack picks up where Shadow left off, and unloaded a roll of shotgun pellets into Silver's wing, tearing it a little and making him swoon in pain.

Then I Sonic do his Chronokinesis thing and pelts a pocket knife in Silver's eye, punching it out of it's socket, making blood spew everywhere. Silver roars and gropes his eye, before taking his claws and throwing Sonic somewhere off the mountain, a sure sign that none of us will get a second chance to do that again.

"How do we defeat him?" Flying yells aloud, swinging his battle ax and leaving a deep gash on the Iblis Silver. He jumps up, grasping a loose scale and slips off it, hitting his shoulder in the most painful way.

"We can't," Scar cries out. "He's the harbringer of the apocolypse!" "We need Jet!" Charmy says. "But he's inside that cube!" I tell the bee as Antoine and I both are suddenly slammed into the ground by a physic wave.

"Just push both Scar and that damned cube off the mountain and call it a day!" Argon shouts. If we weren't in the middle of a major battle, we might throw him off the mountain instead. I'll be glad to get away from him when this is over, if I make it out alive.

Antoine helps pick me up, and we continue to fight. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Treenuts and Nack trying to get Scar to do something that no doubt has to deal with the cube. Antoine and I, on the other hand, join beside Predator Hawk as he and Speedy swoop away from Silver's mouth and land a dagger on his nostril.

Silver swings his head into the men, knocking the two into each other and making them plummet into the ground.

Then Silver sees me, and he looks hungry. He uses telepathy to subdue me by hallucinations- that of Lightning chastising me for abandoning him, for betraying him, visions of Eggman mocking me, Flying Frog making passionate love to my wife, my children being devoured by snakes, Sonic and Sally running off together, visions of Antoine dying a thousand different ways, telling me the shame and dishonor I am to my family, all kinds of stuff.

Then next thing I know, I hear a bloodcurdling scream, and a bright blue glow, and I look up to see Sonic climbing up the mountain. How he is alive, I don't know, but he is. What a miracle! And even more so how he climbed up here so fast.

But even more, I look around for Silver. Nowhere in sight.

 _Where did he go?_

Maybe he vanished. Maybe he's still here? Oh Goddess of the Golden Lotus Flower! Don't let it be that he's now terrorizing another dimension! I can't take this anymore! I just want it over!

But then I feel a set of arms around me, and turn to see Lightning's face buried into my shoulder. There was so much hugging going around, and I was so grateful to not only be alive, but Antoine and Lightning to be alive, I held them and cried. I could feel Lightning's tears too, Antoine was never the one to cry, but he wasn't immune. I could see a couple of tears slide down his face before he wiped them away.

I'm so glad we made it. A few sacrifices were made along the way, but in the end, it turned out okay, until we hear crying.

The whole group turns, and there's Silver, naked and helpless and he sits on the grass, crying. Immediately, Flying walks up to him and sat beside him, surrounding him in his arms.

Flying gestured for us to follow in his lead, but none did, we were too scared to even get near him, minus Flying Frog. He started whispering to Silver in a low, monotone voice, trying not to excite another fight.

Seeing Silver cry made me feel like I was picking on a poor, defensless child-had that child not slaughtered an entire village, but then Chaotix Vice seized the crying Silver from Flying's arms, and he let out a scream. The handcuffs were slammed so fast on Silver I barely heard them clap.

Luckily for us, Silver didn't do anything, but we all did see the cube in Scar's hand glowing in protest. "You can't do this to him," Flying spits, standing up on his hind legs to almost reach Vector's cold face. "He's not a criminal, he's insane!"

Then Speak First, Think Back On It Later me, callously states, "That's for the judge to decide." That's when the whole world stops, and many people give me hard looks, even Charmy, who looked as if I had just pulled a gun on him.

Flying stares at me, mouth agape in horror. Antoine looks at me and shakes his head in dissapproval, and frankly, I really don't like what I said either, but what must be done must be done. And what makes my words worse is that Flying just says, "Silver is insane, he doesn't realize that his actions are hurting people."

And naked Silver is just standing there, staring innocently at Jet's cube, purring softly to himself and picking at the grass with his feet, not a clue what is taking place right now. It was almost like we were condemning a toddler to death. The Terrible 2s are terrible, but you don't see mothers condemning their children to death for it.

"When I was insane, I didn't know what I was doing," Flying explains for the umpteenth time. "I was listening to the voices in my head. I was silly and dangerous. Silver may be harmful now, but that's because we've provoked him into battle so many times he thinks that we're all against him. Look at him right now, he's staring at Jet's cube as if anticipating when Jet will come out again and make everything better, he doesn't know any better."

"He's like what, 38. He should know better." Shadow states. "No," Predator intervenes. "He's 38 in body, but at a loss of age in his mind."

"I don't care if he bleeds or is jailed forever, justice _must_ be served." Vector blatantly states, heeding a geat disregard for what is at stake here- a man's life. Many men agree with him, even Skylar, who sure as hell hasn't been paying attention long enough to know what's going on. Then Shadow nearly sends the moutain into a riot when he says:

"Just kill him."

"But this isn't what Jet asked for," Flying says in horror. "Where did our sense of honor go?" "I think it's better that we arrest him than kill him, Flying." Charmy explains to the angry frog. "With the injustice he's about to face, it would have been better had we impaled him." Flying snarls. He stomps away from the detectives.

"Well, it's over now," Vector speaks. "He'll get his justice, and we'll get our peace." "If what you say is true, then we better burn down every nuthouse in Mobius and shoot every resident running out of it." Flying glares. "How would they know," Vector bellows. "They're insane."

"If you paid attention in psychology class when you decided to go to college, you'd know that most psychopaths make Einstein look like he's lacking a brain." Flying growled. "Why do you care anyways? You never knew him." Charmy asks curiously.

"Because right now, I'm the only one bending backwards and pissing all over myself to save his ass because I know what'll happen to him. I know that once you detectives bring him in, he'll die." Flying explains.

"So what do you expect us to do, let him go?" Shadow steps in again. Flying leers at the black hedgehog and spits, "No. I want him taken to a psychiatric facility where he'll get the help he needed in the first place, and I know of a very good place where he'll be treated humanely and not like some problem."

"He murdered a bunch of people, so did you, why care about him?" I ask. I get a hard look from the frogman, and then he narrows his eyes and hisses, "Because he doesn't know what in the hell he's doing."

"I don't care because I have a son to feed back home and a world to keep safe. If you don't like what I'm doing, then you can go back home to the hellions you spawned, and I'll just take your credit." Vector states.

Now most of us were horrified. "He put in more work than you," Nack says. "Why do you get to take it from him?" "Because he-" Vector's answer was cut off by a sharp, maniacle laugh from Silver, and we all turn to him.

We expect him to say something, but he doesn't. He just continues to laugh and laugh, to the point Vector yanks him to the ground and drags him through a Warp Hole he opened up, beating on the poor man as he does.


	13. The Court Date

**I OWN NOBODY. THEY BELONG TO THIER CREATORS. THANK YOU.**

 **Chapter 13: The Court Date**

Vector and Charmy dissappeared behind the great walls, tugging Silver like an unwilling dog on a leash while the rest of us hung low in the forest where we could not be seen. I'm shivering in anxiety and adrenaline just seeing the castle and discussing our next plans with the group. We all know that thre will be a court held for Silver, and I doubt that Vector and Charmy would be allowed to stick around long enough to say anything else, so it's up to us to defend him.

We didn't want a horde of people jumping in there because it'd look like we've formed a brigade to attack, and there's nobody here that Sally likes, trusts, or vice versa to speak on Silver's behalf because we all know that Sally wouldn't listen to Sonic even if the Goddess came down and told her to, Jet's not here to vouch that he could care for him, Bean and Bark became wanted men from around the world, so they'll be shot the minute they step out into the open (Plus Bark's still unstable, despite the fact that Silver is out of commission for now), Antoine and Nack have been labeled as criminals and threats because Sally knows that they are not stupid and can speak the truth, and she won't listen to anyone else, but me, if she's not waiting to have me hanged for not leaving my family for her (The offer was on the table years ago, and she didn't take it then, so why be mad now?).

As you can see, none of us are best friends with her, and then it reminds me of that hick wife of Antoine's, whom he killed, and if she was here, Silver might stand a chance. Unfortunately that thought slipped out, and despite Antoine hating her for cheating on him and killing her for it, he defended her name by saying, "Elle nom il Bunnie. Non Hick."

Then I slap myself in the forehead because he wasn't suppossed to know that I forgot his wife's name and invariably started to call her, "The Hick." I give Antoine an apologetic bow and apologize to him.

A shrewd, long, harrowingly uncomfortable pause mildews between us all, until a voice speaks up. "I'll go." Flying offers. "Huh?" several people ring. "I'll go to the palace with Monkey Khan." he responds. "What?" I say, blinking, barely catching what he says. I'm still registering what he's said when he starts explaining, "She doesn't know me well enough, she likes Monkey Khan better than all of us here combined, and I know how to explain Silver's insanity. We may save him after all guys!"

He seemed so gleeful, so confident in his words, he should be an Inspirationalist instead. "How are we to convince her?" I ask. Instead of Flying speaking, that putrid hedgehog, Sonic, does instead. "Have you forgotten my wife put us all back in the positions we tried hard to escape from in the first place? Have you fogotten that she is a very disagreeable woman? What makes you so special, Flying?"

"Insanity." the frog replied. Sonic and Nack shared a look with each other, and then with Flying. "Well, are we going to just stand here, or are we going to the palace, Khan?" the frogman asks me. I only give a curt nod and we push through the bushes.

When we get to the palace, we're greeted by two gorilla guards, which, by the way, due to their nigh extinction coming soon, are illegal to have in the military, yet she does, and they look at us with quivering eyes.

Most gorillas are tall, bulky in muscle, and can take multiple gunshots to the chest before dying, and by most, I mean every one that has made it to adolescence, like these two somewhat look.

I can tell the youngest one is a new recruit that can't be no older that 14 based on the way he's shaking his gun and trying to look menacing. His outfit is way too big on him and he's shorter that the other gorilla, who looks to be anywhere between 17 to 20 years old. I could probably talk them into letting us by without a problem.

They almost remind me of when I was younger, only I was bred to fight and taught how to at three. These guys clutch their rifles like they were valuable possessions and shakily ask us to state our business. The words Flying tells them slides off with ease:

"Sweethearts, we're here to visit the queen on important business. It's all about a man that lost his mind and needs our help. We'll be in and out, there's no worry dears. We're okay."

He holds up his hands up peacefully and gives them a gentle, fatherly smile. The gorilla boys look at each other and take the bait, letting us through without a fight. When the gates close behind us, an older head escorts us, disallowing me to congratulate Flying's honeyed tongue and ask him how he does it.

I know that if I would have said something along those lines, I would've gotten us both shot, but not him. It amazes me these people's skills and the only ones I have is predicting a hurricane and shaking a sword through the air.

The gorilla in front of us looks around 50, and is very tall, very stern. He barks at us, "I'll escort you to the queen. You better have some respect." Well isn't he just lovely?

I have to resist the urge to go, "Yes, sir." In a way, he reminds me of Simian; stern and unsmiling. At least to me he was. The closest I ever got to a compliment from him was, "You are a perpetual annoyance." Then I moved to Japan and never saw him again.

Flying was always by Simian's side, no matter what, even guiding him in how to murder people without feelings. That big guy never got past deliberately hurting a poor man who had nothing to live for. Then again, neither could I. I could kill thousands of ninjas *ahem* every ninja but Lightning and Rain, Lightning's uncle, and my uncle-in-law, and still uphold the samurai code.

Back on subject, you didn't belittle Simian and expect to walk away alive when he was around. Plus, Flying knew secrets the others didn't. I don't know why Simian trusted Flying the way he did, nor Flying to him, but he did.

We pass through several more gates, the guards surrounding us at an alarming rate. You would've thought that we were high class criminals with the amount of firepower they have packing near us. I almost feel afraid to breathe.

"It's because of me." Flying whispers. I look at him and then remember the little international headlines going on about him. When was he _not_ in the news? He still is, with the Mobian Enquirer constantly at his house asking about more victims and strange dissappearances. I had even overheard that his uncle and Lightning's uncle ran in a gang together.

Rain's unwillingness to answer who that strange frogman is in one of pictures only adds a piece to the puzzle. I've never thought of it, but maybe I should take a look on Talkopedia and research Lightning's uncle.

When we get into the castle, you could tell some serious remodeling had been done. The banisters were marble, the lining of the walls were carefully etched in gold and silver. Bronze pillars stood tall around several places. Cloud white curtains waved from the cool breeze, and the atmospere was all around calming- if you excluded the fact that several maids scurried like mice, sweeping and waxing everywhere that we had stepped. Several guards had their weapons cocked, and a whole bunch of French butlers, who knew no English, had helped lead us and warn us about Sally.

According to them, she had caught a maid sneaking out of the palace to meet her lover and had her sentenced to death, and another five were killed to send a message that the enraged queen was not to be trifled with. In other words, we're in trouble when we see her, and so is Silver.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we came upon Silver dead. Based on how roughly Vector handled him, and then how the butlers are whispering to themselves like a booby trap lied ahead, it could be left to the imagination of Silver's fate.

When we were finally pressed through the doors (actually, thrown in here as running footsteps sprinted away from us), we saw her regal majesty propped up on her throne, he blue gown flowering around her, even as she sat, her hair had grown long over the years, and the shde had darkened, her eyes flashed in comptempt, as if the very moon itself had been pitted against us, and she held her scepter like it was a gun. Her face had a scowl on it, as if something unsavory had happened that day.

I look around us, knowing in the pit of my stomach that something didn't feel right, like I had better have an escape plan ready, and as I looked around, that's when I saw it- Silver- naked and whimpering in a corner as Vector had him chained to a wall with a whip in hand, and not any regular whip either. This whip was made to subdue those with powers.

Sally must've really have known what she was up against to use that, and I don't blame her. My wife is a hydrokietic, my brother-in-law is an electrokietic. I grew up with both, and let me tell you, things can change in the whip of a second with one of those powered people around.

Those things immediately become hostile and aggressive as soon as they hit puberty (the first menstrual cycle for girls, and the first break in a boy's voice) and anything small can set them off. I've even seen how Sonic acted when he had his speed, and it's actually creepy if you looked past his heroicism.

He was always hostile, and the history I read about all those equipped with powers, they were especially territorial over their mates, but would take several at a time.

When Mobians appeared, they started turning to them, but the metaphysical appearance of the powered people appalled the fisrt several sets of Mobius, and they all became a little rapey once they knew that the beautiful Mobians were just out of arm's grasp (and those with powers weren't very pretty-misshapen, corpse-like bodies, if any physical being beyond the primoridial plane existed, just ugly people to look at).

I call them things because they're not really people, they never were to begin with, they were just a trial and error gone right. It doesn't matter if they were birthed from the womb or from the element itself, their really just personified elements. Their children may have gone right, but by damn, their grandchildren might revert back to the form all powers once took when the world was fucked over by the invading human race.

That's why my wife exists. That's why Sonic exists. That's why the government wants to eradicate them. Their too dangerous and unpredictable, and at the very least, unstable.

Growing up is hard enough already without all hell breaking loose the moment you become a man or woman. I could never recall Lightning or River ever actually having actual nice clothes to wear because something always happened to them, and Antoine always told me tales of Sonic literally burning his socks and the soles of his shoes to ash and going through them like mad. And despite his nudity, Sonic would always eat and eat and eat. I'd hate to live with people who have powers that do that to them.

Then again, Cajun Style Japanese Chicken didn't sound so bad when Lightning was around, at least I got to eat it before my wife touched it and ruined it.

Back on subject, I cannot tell you how many times I've slipped on my wife because she became a puddle of water for no reason whatsoever, and now my wife is contemplating on sending my daughter away to Lightning to hone in her electrokinesis. I wonder how Blaze must've felt when she learned that her daughter may have had powers. Certainly nothing could have predicted this kind of outcome for her, could it?

And Silver; we know what we're up against. He's exactly like Lightning, and I know well that people who have powers fight to the death, so I can only imagine the havoc that Silver will wreck upon us all if that whip is relinquished from Vector's grasp, but the telekinetic isn't invincible. He'll be damn hard to kill, but not invincible, but I'm here to free him, not sign his death warrant.

If money is needed, I'm in no short supply of it, as I am a mobster's son, and I'll make people vanish to get this money to free him. The others swore an oath to Jet, I did not, but I'm not going to let them pick up the tab, not when I have power a my fingertips. Lightning does too, and so does Antoine, I know that much. Silver'll not have to worry about us going into debt any time soon. Don't worry Silver, I have your back.

Vector's cold eyes settle on mine. Charmy is nowhere to be seen. I wonder why. Flying and I bow humbly and try to start off on the best note possible:

"My Queen, I beseech your grace."

That was my line. Flying's came out more of an echo of my last two words. We look up, and Sally looks at us in confusion. "Why do come here?" she asks promptly.

"We have come in for the question of Silver's freedom," Flying answer's smoothly. "It would be wonderful if we can take him into custody in our hands."

Sally looked perturbed at this, like Flying had told her something nasty instead of what he just asked. She glowers at him and responds, "Why you?"

Before Flying could speak again, Vector interrupts him with a bellow. "They want to fight for Silver's freedom, that bastard does."

Sally looks at the crocodile like he was a passed out drunk-a slow glare that rounded back into confusion. Then she turns her attention to us.

"And you two came in here fighting for a man that you did not capture?" Sally asks curiously.

Did not capture? We all had a hand in capturing Silver, and then I realize that fat bastard of a detective took all the credit. Perhaps Charmy did too and ran like hell to avoid us all. Perhaps not. That answer, I'll never know.

This time, I also swerved in to save Flying's ass, as he wasn't getting us nowhere but trouble. "We would also like to hold court for Silver as well." I say.

"Court?" Sally asks me. Flying mumbles something incoherent, but otherwise, Sally agrees.

"Court," Sally repeats, like the word was a sour taste in her mouth. "I'll hold court, not you. Court begins, Silver dies without dignity and stripped of all titles, lands, possessions, wives, children, everything but his own name. Court is adjurned, come again."

And all our mouths hang open, even Vector, who I'm sure wasn't anticipating a sociopathic level like this. Why, I didn't even get a chance to speak on Silver's behalf. For the love of the Goddess, is she blind to the fact that Silver is insane? And I can't believe trial was held so quickly and finished without room for a breath, no wonder her servants are scared of her.

I need a reason to buy Silver some time, and perhaps Flying and I might save him after all, but I must inform him that once this plan is set in action, anything he has left unfinished in America will stay in America because we'll be shot before we even touch the shores. Then again, you don't tell Flying what to do, he tells you, and you better pray he's not in one of his episodes where he'll just slash first and ask questions later.

"But My Leige," I say sickly. "He is naked." "Good. Leave him like that." Sally barks coldly. "But it is indignifying." I argue, trying not to sound like I'm whining.

Villain or not, nobody deserves to die like ***Bold*** **that*****. Not even Eggman.

Sally flares her nostrils and answers my plea with, "Do I care? I want you to shoot him till his blood decorates my walls." Flying and I look at each other grimly, then Flying speaks his part, "He is insane. From first hand experience I know that yes, these people can become difficult, but I also know that there is an offer on the table to take him into custody to be placed in a safe environment where he can't hurt noone no more."

Sally dismisses him with a harsh, "And you think I care you damn lunatics! People like you should be dragged by horses on a bed of nails till your eyes fall out and your tongue is being fought over by rats! There is no more insane asylums here because people like you deserve to die in cruel ways so that way the voices in your head will shut up! Silver got a lenient sentence! Speak again you stupid little ingrate, and I'll make your family pay!"

Flying glared at her so hard his face looked like it was about to break, and I felt sick to my stomach. When Sally was younger, she would've never had said anything like that in her entire life. She stood for justice and equality for all, and that made her beautiful in my eyes. Standing here and yelling at a mentally unstable man (As I have seen his episodes) does not rank her as a hero no more.

I glared at her hard and said words I never thought I'd find myself saying in my **Bold and Italic** _ **entire *****_ life. "You know what you little bitch," I start, Sally sneers at me. "Eggman is a way better person than the likes of you." And with that, I turn quickly and leave, trying to keep the tears from falling down my face.

Flying follows me silently, touching my shoulder. "You did well." he says to me. "But I did not save Silver." I retort at him sadly, wiping the snot from my nose with my hand. "We wouldn't have been able to save Silver regardless with a bitch like her still in office anyways." Flying squints out into the opening.

We continue to make our way outside, and immediately, Sonic runs up to us, his eyes wild with fear, and pushes us foward, spouting out hastily, "Come quick! They're getting ready to execute Silver!"

"They're what!" I shout, beginning to lose my mind. This is too early! He was suppossed to be executed tomorrow! Oh no! What have I done?

"We have to go to the courtyard! Now!" Sonic presses urgently. And we follow him, sprinting.


	14. Silver's Fate

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **Chapter 14: Silver's Fate**

We get to the courtyard and we already see a firing squad lined up across the hedges.

"Where is everybody?" I ask Sonic as we run. "I don't know," he answers hastily. "We have to stop this!" Flying shouts. "Duh!" Sonic retorts wildly at him.

We basically slam ourselves into a wall of law enforcement, taking guns to our abdominals, where they slam us to the ground and hold us at gunpoint. They jerk us up and slam handcuffs onto our wrists before they take us to a dirty cell.

As we walk by, we see Vector, standing tall and erect, like a soldier saluting his commander, yell, "Ready!" I hear the guns raise.

"Aim!" I hear them cock. Silver is looking at us with the eyes of an innocent child, yet he is smiling, as if relieved that his pain is finally over.

"Fire!"

"No!" Sonic shouts ornerly, flailing his body wildly as all Flying and I can do is look on as the soldiers repeatedly shoot Silver, even though he has fallen dead onto the ground.

I turn my head away in disgust, and I hear Flying heaving behind me, almost as if he was crying. I turn and look at him. His eyes were wet and glistening in the sun. Sonic was already crying and being dragged by his feet to our cell.

I-I have failed everybody! It was my job to walk into Sally's courtroom and make damn well sure Silver gets the help he needs, and instead, I destroy everything this year has brought us, and I can only hear the vibes from Flying doing the same as mine-chastising us.

And my concience has every right to, as making sure Silver is alive was a promise everybody else made to him, but me, and it sure as hell makes me feel like I'm in the doghouse now.

Everybody else made a promise to Jet, and we let him down. I have dishonored the Samurai Code. I will bear this shame with me for eternity.

But what frightens me most was Silver's smile. He was _glad_ to die, and I don't blame him. If Jet was here, he'd probably be the same way, as I would for Antoine if he ever got into a predicament like this. Of course I'd cry my eyes out, but at the same time I'd feel relieved that his suffering was over. But then I felt rage.

Not just the kind of rage you get when you're tossed head first into the brick wall of a dirty, spider-infested, dark cell, or the kind of rage you get from adrenaline (As I know for sure that's exactly what Sonic is feeling as he slams himself against the bars wildly, shouting, cursing, and beating his body black and blue), or the kind of rage you pent up inside of you like Flying is struggling to do as he sits on the ground with his knees curled up to his eyes and growls as the cell bars.

No, this was Retribution Rage. Retribution for me and the guys I traveled with. Retribution for Silver. For Nikai. For Jet. Retribution for our hard work.

Suddenly, I couldn't contain it any longer.

"And that damn detective took all of he credit!" I bawl/scream out. Sonic's ears perk up at me and he softly says, "We know. Charmy old us Vector took the credit to keep us from being hunted down becuse Sally warned that if our group was near, she'd hav our heads."

So Vector was looking after Silver afterall, but why did he keep it such a secret? I guess it was one of those the less we knew the better off we'll be.

But now we have to find a way out of here, but how? Barging ot of here is out of the question, that's a bullet just waiting to happen. Starting a prison riot like the Destructix did? Yeah, there's not enough people hear to cause a riot. Do what Sonic is doing? Well, I want my wife to recognize me when I see her again.

So all we can do is wait for some one to come get us, and eventually, they do.


	15. At The End of the Day

_**I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.**_

 **We've finally made it to the last chapter! Wahoo! Now let's get this bad boy over with.**

 **Chapter 15: At The End of the Day**

We see Vector, with a ring of keys flitting through the group to find the one to our cell. Immediately, Sonic, Flying, and I look at each other and cheer silently, but Vector doesn't.

His eyes are long, hard, and sullen. His chubby physic looked like it had been smashed in a ringer washer dryer. He says only, "You are free to go. Cleared of all charges."

I was going to leap out of my skin!In fact, I shot up and hugged Flying and Sonic. I also spared a hug for Vector and thanks him.

"Now what?" Sonic asked.

"We mourn for Silver," Vector choked. "And then we reunite with our families."

I'm still smiling. Then Flying pipes up, "What about the body?"

"I have arranged with Predator Hawk to have it sent back to the Parallel Dimension to be buried alongside his wife, even if he has to sneak Silver there to do it." was Vector's answer.

Well, I'm actually happy for Silver, with all that he's been through, at least his dead body gets something happy.

"Well, let's go see our families." I say. This time, everybody agrees with me.

 _Later..._

I see a galleon of wives pour out into the open and leap into their husband's arms, hosing them down with kisses, their children jumping for joy, crying, and hugging their parents.

Actually, a lot of tears were shed, minus some pink, cruel looking hawkgirl who had a smile brought to her face upon recieving the Tomb of Jet the Hawk, the Cube of Babylon Garden. Scar wasn't happy to say the least, but at least mother and son were reunited again with a smile.

Speaking of which, I notice that River's not around. Oh wait, I remember, Lightning gave her to Maybelle and some girl named Dayright, Daynight, oh I forgot her name. Oh, nevermind, it's not imprtant anymore, and then my eyes catch Antoine, alone, and watching us all.

Antoine has nothing. No family, no home, almost no friends, nothing. He had nothing to fight for, unlike everybody else.

He had a wife, but she died.

Her name was Thistle I think, so no, it's not Bunnie who I'm talking about. If he died, his name would be forgotten, his deeds and honor would be cast into a void, prince or not.

I walk towards Antoine and give him my comfort. "It's finally over," I say. "It's finally over and now we can all go home."

Antoine returns my hug and we decide to spend our time talking, with Lightning coming towrds us. He left his wife with my wife in Japan. As I wait for him, I take another look around at the joyous men around me.

I see that Sonic got a new wife...and more children.

Shadow was trying to get away from his wife as she nagged him about everything, and ultimately, he wound up kissing her instead.

It was a beautiful sight, and then I see more men without warm greetings from their family. Argyle, Vector's only son, didn't show up, and he looked to be trying hard not to cry, but ultimately gave in to the emotion and began to weep.

Bean talks about Wave all the time, little did I know, she was dead, and so was Bark's wife. I only knew all of this because Bark wrote it down on a piece of paper and told me that his wife pined to death and Bean's wife suffered a terrible fate and that's as far as he went with the details.

Charmy had 4 daughters, but only three came, and he looked more mad than anything.

Lightning, upon his arrival, had spoken, "It's time to go home." "Hai," I say back to him. "It's time, but may I say goodbye first?"

Lightning raises his eyebrows at me and says, "What's stopping you now?" I rub the back of my neck and turn red before I realize that nothing is stopping me now.

I share my condolences, say goodbye to the other men, and go back to Japan with Lightning and Antoine.

 _Epilogue_

We are back onto the shores of Japan, waiting for Daylight to return our calls and bring our wives to us, tanning and relaxing with the sound of the waves and alcohol, and then we all see something peculiar.

We see Silver in the distance, waving back at us, smiling. He no longer looked insane and he was dressed regally with a purple cat woman standing beside him, her arms linked around him. He then turns around and walks back into the light with the woman.

I gaze out onto the beach, clink my martini with Antoine and Lightning's, and we rest way into the night before returning home to be with our families.

 **The End**


End file.
